Why Do We Strive For Online Anonymity, And Why Do We Need Anonymous Hosting?
Given all surveillance practices currently operating on today’s internet, protecting your identity has become crucial. However, gaining unmonitored internet access is still possible if you utilize private browser modes and VPNs. If you are only in the role of a visitor, there are many options for accessing and browsing the internet "undetected".
A different situation arises when you need to share or store online data and you want to keep your true identity hidden. Privacy is about providing PII details (Personally Identifiable Information) and then having absolute control over who can access these PII details. On the other hand, anonymity is about not providing any PII whatsoever.
Anonymous services provide the maximum possible level of privacy. Since these services won't require any PII details, they can't reveal the true identities of their users under any circumstances. These anonymous services don't comply with KYC requirements and often accept only "anonymous" cryptocurrency payments.
Since anonymous services won't ask for any PII details, they can't compromise your privacy.
How do I host online content anonymously?
If you need to host and share any online data without revealing who you are, anonymous hosting is your way of doing so. Anonymous hosting service will let you set up an anonymous server or an anonymous VPS (Virtual Private Server). Then, you can configure and customize this anonymous server in any way you need. Full root access will let you install any software and tune your anonymous server to precisely match your requirements. Anonymous hosting providers offer various hosting plans (server configurations) based on your online project's nature. These anonymous hosting plans vary in the allocated resources, such as CPU, RAM, and memory. Standard hosting packages include general-purpose VPS plans, CPU-optimized VPS plans, or RAM-optimized VPS plans.
What is anonymous hosting ideal for?
An anonymous server can host an anonymous website, anonymous blog, or any application where the protection of the owner's identity is crucial.
An anonymous website is a website where it is impossible to tell who the owner is. The anonymous website runs on an anonymous server that only requires an email and accepts only crypto payments. The domain name is often also registered via an anonymous domain registrar. Therefore, it's impossible to find out who the owner is through standard methods such as domain lookup or IP address.
How anonymous your online project will be depends on how many layers of protection you put between yourself and your project. Therefore, it's very important always to access your anonymous services using specific methods to maintain your anonymity.
How to access your anonymous server undetected
If you are running any anonymous service and want to keep it anonymous, how you access it is very important. So, at the end of the day, being online and anonymous requires a combination of all the following steps.
If you are unfamiliar with Tails OS, always use a combination of a VPN and the Tor browser. A virtual private network, or VPN, is a software application that helps secure your access to the internet by creating a secure and private connection, even when using a public network. VPNs will protect you from interference, snooping, IP geo-location tracking, and censorship.
Tor is a free anonymous internet browser you load onto your computer. Every time you transmit or request data over the internet, your data is layered with strong encryption. Traffic that travels through Tor nodes must be encrypted before accessing the public internet. One of the main issues with Tor is in this area. The person in charge of the "exit node" may monitor your traffic and snoop on private information. Users can be spied on by bad actors, oppressive governments, and other spies operating their own nodes.
An example of a computer-in-a-box is Tails. You set it up on a DVD or USB drive, and you're almost anonymous online. Tails is fundamentally a Linux operating system that has been anonymity optimized. It includes several privacy and encryption technologies, but Tor stands out because it anonymizes internet data by routing it through a global network of volunteer-run computers. Along with Tor, Tails also comes with privacy tools like PGP, KeePassX for password management, and Off-the-Record for chat encryption.
Tails should only be used for particular tasks that require maintaining anonymity.