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AM I ANOYNMOUS? No, But You Can Be!

I am often asked by friends and colleagues concerning their web surfing, if their actions can be traced, or are their clicks/links to sites being recorded somewhere by somebody, and if so what happens if the government decides to go and get that information for use.  I usually snicker at them for a single second, and realize that people think that what they are doing in the dark at home is totally anonymous.  And unfortunately for most it absolutely isnt.

The question are now posed : 

Am I breaking any laws when surfing adult sites, sites with questionable content or participating gambling sites?

Possibly.  If the images or videos depict subject matter that could possibly be against the laws of your local community, yes you are breaking the law (keep in mind this is a very gray area).  Obscenity is defined on a community to community level.  Generally speaking if you CANNOT verify the age of the participants in the images, the burden to prove their age is on you(or the host of the image), so if a court says the girl is 17 then it is up to you to prove she isnt.  Most legit websites keep 2257 records on file(listings of actual IDs of the subjects in the images in videos), and with a bunch of nudging you can ask for their help if you get busted.  They may tell you, we dont care have fun in jail or they may assist you.  But if you are getting images and videos from newsgroups or from file share services your risk is ten fold,  without an easy means of age verification you may serve some time.  The government cant go to your house and confiscate your computer without reason, so if you surf porn, do not have your computer leave your possession, (ie for repairs, ship it back home from school via ups etc).  Keep in mind file deletion doesnt actually rid the files from your machine, they are still there and easily recoverable via a $20 program.  The only true way to delete files off your drive is to use some sort of multi pass file shredder or basically SMASH the drive with a sledge hammer until it is in a million pieces(make sure they are small ones at that).

Gambling is illegal online period.  You are breaking the law the second you participate in a wager in US Online.

Where is my web activity logged and stored, and is it readily available for use in criminal investigations ?

Yes it is logged and yes it can be used against you. period.  And yes there is a way around this as well.

Can I store videos and pictures of a pornographic nature on my computer or remotely without any criminal/legal risk?

With regards to storing files, whether you know it or not everytime you go to a website the pictures you see on the web page are being stored in a directory/folder on your drive.  This is called a cache directory and the browser program stores off maybe 20 days worth of these pictures at a time.  So even though you didnt consciously save the porn images they have been saved temporarily by the browser you are using.  So basically in a nut shell browsing porn on your pc definitely exposes you to some legal risk.  Yes there are ways to clean up all this stuff that is stored.  If you are saving files purposely on your PC I would recommend using a file encryption utility with 256bit encryption that requires a strong named password.  This will "hide" the porn pics and videos from most eyes securely.  Keep in mind it is against the law to store illegal pictures on your PC encrypted or not encrypted.

For more information regarding solutions to get you more anonymous/private check this out.

Primedius offers a stable, fast, reliable, and anonymous proxy service which can HIDE you from any traces of your activity on the internet.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer nor do I aspire to be one, this articles contents is for informational/entetainment purposes and no liability by author for any reason will be taken based on its contents.  These are just suggestions and any actions based on this information are the sole responsibilty of person taken said action  and not the authors or hosts of this article.