
Be anonymous, create your own proxy server with AWS EC2 - viral-sangani
https://dev.to/viralsangani/be-anonymous-create-your-own-proxy-server-with-aws-ec2-2k63
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noodlesUK
Every time I read a post like this, I feel compelled to talk about the value
proposition commercial VPNs provide. Commercial VPNs provide some level of
plausible deniability because multiple people’s traffic will be shared across
a single IP. Building your own VPN or proxy does not provide this level of
plausible deniability, as the only person ever having traffic coming from that
IP is you.

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prashantr
Depends on who you want to be anonymous from right?

Would personal VPN's be a wrong tool to use even if the goal was to be
anonymous only from ad-tech companies ?

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WildGreenLeave
From my understanding, yes. All that an ad-tech company like Google needs is
associating your IP with your Google account once and they will know that all
traffic from that IP address is yours. Especially when you are the only one
using that IP address. Also, visiting a Google site is enough for Google to
associate your account with your IP.

This is all coming from my knowledge about networking and browsers. This
doesn't mean it is proof that Google is actually doing this, but I would make
no sense for them to not do this.

Edit: typo

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antonvs
With a proxy server on AWS, it's trivial to change your IP address regularly.
That's not a complete solution but it would help.

Another thing you can do if you're rolling your own anonymity solution is to
run your browser in a container. That way whenever you start a new browser
window, it doesn't inherit any state from your environment or previous browser
sessions.

Finally, using a proxy with built in privacy features helps. Privoxy is one
example, although it's not being updated very often lately.

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prashantr
The article would be more helpful if it had specified how exactly proxy
servers help make browsing more anonymous on the internet. I would also have
expected someone who is talking about proxy servers to compare and contrast
VPN and why or why not use one over another.

The article initially identifies all the talking points w.r.t online browsing
surveillance (cookies, fingerprinting, isp snooping etc). But it never tells
how exactly a proxy is solving all those problems. If the author had in fact
dug into those aspects, it would have become apparent that a proxy only
changes the clients IP address visible to the website. Cookies, fingerprinting
still exists.

I haven't followed through on the instructions yet for setting up proxy. But
the authors ignorance (intentional or not) about proxy servers impact, makes
me question if it's even worthwhile to follow the instructions.

I am still curious on a couple of things after reading this though 1\. What is
the difference between a proxy and VPN? 2\. How much does hiding my IP address
help w.r.t hiding myself from corporate surveillance?

Here's a list of stuff that I am currently experimenting with as part of
balancing browsing experience v/s being anonymous. 1\. Use a VPN[1] 2\.
Configure Firefox to resist fingerprinting 3\. Do not use ISP's DNS resolver.
4\. Block JavaScript on browser 5\. Use Tor as your browser.

[1] setting up a personal VPN was a breeze with
[https://trailofbits.github.io/algo/](https://trailofbits.github.io/algo/)

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llimos
I didn't see any mention of encryption. Wouldn't this mean that data is
flowing unencrypted between you and the proxy, _even if you are visiting an
HTTPS site_ , thus defeating the whole purpose of HTTPS? And without even any
indication in the browser that you are doing so. It's possible to set up a
proxy over HTTPS, but it's a much more involved process.

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viraptor
Normally if you set the proxy, HTTPS will be sent over CONNECT verb and the
shoot connection will be proxied, not by plaintext forwarding of the original
request.

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llimos
Ah interesting, I didn't know that. Thanks!

I've been using exactly this method for a few months as a cheap alternative to
a VPN for putting me in certain countries (that AWS has a zone in of course).
I was always very careful not to access sensitive websites when using it - I
guess my caution was misplaced!

