Online advertisers seem to be just an annoying part of internet travel. “Click here”, “You Won!”, “What Celeb are You?”, or the most infamous ads with embedded audio. As devastating as it is, the pixilated balloons were a lie; you aren’t the 10,000th visitor and did not win a free Ford.

What we don’t realize is that these ads are actually doing a fair amount of reconnaissance while they pop up all over our screens. These ads record information such as the time of day in which you accessed the site, how long you were on it, etc., but they can also glean more potentially dangerous information. Possibly they wish to record your IP address, to find your location, and in turn, know who is surfing on that particular site. While this all seems business oriented, if this information falls into the wrong hands, the results could be quite disturbing.

A senior aide to President Obama has recently stated that its intelligence department will begin to monitor just how and what these ads are recording. If the White House is stepping in on the free internet, it must be a somewhat serious situation.

Take the first step to protection. Your IP address is the window into all information about your internet activities. Using a private proxy, which allows you to change your IP address, can counter these invasive advertisements. The new IP address that the proxy created will throw the ads off of your trail, and instead of reporting what you have done and where you have been, it will report completely random information to its constituents. This could even decrease the number of fly-like advertisements buzzing around your computer!

A private proxy will create a secure tunnel for your internet surfing to travel through, and will ensure that you remain anonymous.

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