When most people go online for whatever reason, they seem to think that they have joined a large network where they are free to mingle, roam and chat carelessly anonymously.
Following events of the recent Zimbabwean Facebook arrest, can your identity really be hidden when you are online (surfing the Internet).
Who can really follow up on you and how? Can your future boss know more than what you have typed on your curriculum vitae, is it possible for your parents to follow up on what you have been doing on the Internet?
Well personally I would tell you that anyone who wants to track you can, depending on the motive and a little expertise.
You are never anonymous whenever you connect on the Internet, in fact it is virtually impossible unless you are really witty.
Many softwares today are written to try and hide one’s identity or rather (ip address) which might seem to work but the same software can be used to blow your cover.
Computer systems today are very safe and robust true, but we are not shocked when we hear that the Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters has been hacked into yet it employs the best of computer security personal be it black or whitehat hackers.
This is not so puzzling to also hear that the same bad guys or crackers have been traced down and arrested.
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Google has done so much good and damage by making sure that all information we carelessly post on the net can be easily searched and stored to haunt us for the rest of our lives especially after one has turned over a new leaf.
Whatever Google or search engines stores or indexes cannot be easily deleted. So are we really unsafe on the net, is it much of a wolf in a sheep’s skin? Well definitely not, basically we are safe and sound.
The net has vastly improved to be much safer and reliable than it used to be, but after analysis the question should be what is one really trying to be safe from.
Simply because safety on the Internet includes but not limited to privacy, and confidentiality, most web users or bloggers naively believe that they are in their own world where they cannot be traced back.
The big question is can I be traced back and how? Well accessing the Internet is hierarchical, whether one is in a public cafe or private connection at home or work.
Accessing the Internet uses a technology called ip addressing and mac address which uniquely identifies your computer or device to your local Internet service provider which will also be forwarded to go through the Internet access provider before it finally passes it on the Internet cloud.
Since it is impossible to connect to the Internet direct without any service provider it simply means it is also possible to trace one back all the way from Facebook to the actual computer used.
This is easily achieved by the hierarchical design of the Internet and if there is enough motive and finance of course, anyone can be tracked down easily to the host.
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