Anonymizer acts as a trusted intermediary between its users and the websites they are viewing.

Every computer that connects to the Internet is assigned an IP (Internet Protocol) address. In many ways, this is very similar to a telephone number. By tracking your IP address, online snoops are able to track the sites you visit and build profiles on your Internet activities. Anonymizer protects your privacy and personal information (credit card numbers, financial transactions, etc.) from cybercrimes and other abuse by redirecting your Web traffic through its secure servers. This ensures that your IP address is kept private, and that your online identity is protected.

Our privacy solution for home users, Anonymizer Universal™, protects you by keeping your IP address (and your identity) private. Anonymizer Universal works by creating an encrypted tunnel between your computer and the Anonymizer servers to shield you from even the most sophisticated methods of online spying, phishing, and pharming. Anonymizer Universal is simple to set up and use, and works silently in the background.

Anonymizer Nyms™ protects your personal email address and identity with disposable, alias email addresses. Nyms allows you to create unique alias email addresses for every website you visit so you can shop online, track stock prices, join online newsgroups, and more without the fear of spam flooding your Inbox. Each alias email is automatically forwarded to your primary email so you won’t need to check multiple email accounts.

Our technology, performance, support, infrastructure, and track record set us apart from the competition.

Technology: Anonymizer develops proprietary technologies that specifically protect a user’s identity on the Internet. All Internet traffic is routed through dedicated hardware, housed in secure facilities with complete access control. Other Internet privacy solutions such as Tor, do not use secure hardware or private proxies. Their technology relies on individuals to “open” their own workstations for users to access as proxy machines.

Performance: Anonymizer’s solutions enjoy very high availability and are tested and optimized on a regular basis. Because other Internet privacy solutions rely on individual computers for the proxy network, performance and reliability can be severely impacted.

Infrastructure: Anonymizer maintains tens of thousands of privately owned untraceable IP addresses and rotates them frequently to keep users from being blocked. Internet privacy providers that use an onion router type of network use proxies owned separately by individual operators. This can be dangerous, as users have no idea who is on the other side of the connection, and are at the mercy of the integrity of each one of these operators.

Support: Anonymizer offers free customer support. Tor, and other Internet privacy solutions do not offer these services to their users.

Track record: Anonymizer is the most experienced and widely used Internet privacy service, protecting millions of users and billions of Web pages since its inception in 1995. Because of Anonymizer’s hardened networks, redundant connections, and strict internal procedures, the company has been able to weather everything from hacker attacks to government-sponsored intrusion teams. Anonymizer is the only Internet privacy service that has earned its reputation in the field, and our real-world experience gives us the edge in developing newer, safer, and better privacy technologies.

Please refer to our Privacy Policy.

Anonymizer has built strict limitations into our software that prevents abuse to the system. Customers aren’t able to send spam, launch denial of service attacks, or carry out other types of malicious attacks using Anonymizer software.

In addition to our products for home users, we also offer security solutions uniquely adapted for corporations and agencies. Please contact us for additional information.

Anonymizer’s products for home users are sold on a subscription basis, and range from $19.99 to $79.99 for one-year licenses.

Anonymizer also offers custom business class solutions, from small business to large organizations and agencies. The cost of these solutions varies by individual customer requirements. Please contact us for additional information.

Once the Anonymizer software is installed and activated, it works silently in the background. You simply surf the Web as you normally would using any browser, with the added peace-of-mind that your privacy is protected.

The amount of outsider observation that can happen in the online world is much greater and more dangerous than in the real world. For example, in a physical bookstore, the store can only gather a list of what books you purchase (assuming you don’t pay cash). In the online world, bookstores can gather all purchases, your home address, credit card numbers, all the books you merely browsed, and the amount of time you spent browsing each book. It is like being followed around the store with a camera over your shoulder.

In addition, Web Analytic tools make it possible for any Web administrator to identify specific IP addresses, domain names, and geographic locations of visitors in order to collect visitor activity. With just this simple tool, they can analyze individual surfing behaviors, track the pages within the site that are most frequently accessed, and identify downloaded files, etc. It is this aspect of functionality that can, in turn, be used to build a detailed psychographic profile based on your purchases and online tracks.

People expose themselves online in all kinds of ways that they would not if they realized their vulnerability.

Anyone who surfs the Internet should be concerned about the amount of information that’s shared and how long it’s kept. Your trail of information accumulates with data points giving a wide range of personal information to those seeking it. These data points are often sold to marketing companies who will then target you with pop-ups, spam emails, and other junk mail based solely on your online profile. To make matters worse, this information can even be sold to health insurance companies who may want to track what health information you’ve been seeking to deny coverage or increase your rates.

For example, AOL released the “anonymous” search logs for 650,000 users. There was no “identifying information” attached to individual searches, but all searches done by the same person could be grouped together under some “anonymous” identifier. A reporter at the New York Times was able to identify one of those people in just a few days based on her searches.

The Internet’s top search engines state in their privacy policies that they automatically record information on user searches, including Internet browser and language, computer IP addresses, unique cookie information, and the URL of the page requested. Just as you wouldn’t want anyone listening in on your private conversations, you don’t want anyone watching your every move on the Internet. This simply underscores the importance of protecting your identity when on the Internet.

While self-regulation is a fine thing, it provides little assurance to the end user. Few users understand the standard policies advocated by many industry groups, many of which are far from privacy friendly. It is also difficult for users to tell the difference between legitimate privacy organizations and window dressing. Finally, enforcement is very difficult, as there are serious questions about the ability of these groups to effectively sanction violators.

Legislation has a role to play, but it cannot effectively protect privacy. People need to actively protect themselves. Viruses are illegal, yet you need anti-virus. Hacking is illegal, yet you need firewalls. If you want to be anonymous, you need to take responsibility for that as well.

Legislation is key for setting baseline expectations of privacy and minimum privacy standards. It is also required to protect privacy in situations where an individual is required to hand over personal information such as banking, medical, and online purchases.

However, legislation is mainly national or local, while the Internet is, by its nature, international. In addition, enforcement of legislation is difficult, and unlikely to be pursued against small time violators. It is often difficult to tell who has gathered information that is later used by a third party. And lastly, restrictions on the use of publicly visible information have serious first amendment implications.

The IP address changes every 24 hours.

No, the IP address will change automatically.

No, the IP address will always be located within the U.S.

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is able to determine that your Web browsing traffic is connecting to the server being used by Anonymizer that day, as well as the volume of traffic you are passing through your Web browsers.

The websites you visit will be able to see the browser you are using, your Operating System, and the character set. Anonymizer will provide the IP address and location. All cookies placed by a website will detect and record the Anonymizer IP address.

Yes, Anonymizer’s home user solution, Anonymizer Universal, requires a software installation that can be downloaded from our website. Anonymizer Nyms is Web-based and available through the website www.nyms.net. The business class solutions vary. Please contact us for additional information.

Anonymizer software will work with any browser except AOL, as this browser does not accept proxies. In addition, you should only use the browser to visit trusted sites that do not require added security. Anonymous Surfing only functions with specific versions of browsers depending on your Operating System. See Anonymous Surfing for further detail. Please also note that Beta versions of browsers are not supported until the full version is released.

Any time Internet traffic is redirected and encrypted, a slight delay may occur. This is especially true for International customers as the Internet traffic is passing through our servers in the U.S.

Our services can be used with any Internet connection.

Anonymizer Universal is compatible with Mac® OS X 10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard®, Windows XP, Windows Vista™ or Windows 7, and iPhone® and iPod touch®, OS 3.0.

Nyms is available through our website, www.nyms.net, and is compatible with all Operating Systems.

Anonymous Surfing requires the Microsoft .NET Frameworks and Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 to function, as well as the Microsoft updates for these programs. Users must have a Genuine copy of Windows to receive these updates. An active Internet connection is required to use and update Anonymous Surfing.

Anonymizer services do not support Peer-to-Peer programs. Anonymous Surfing and Anonymizer Universal are only meant to make the user anonymous as they surf the Web on supported devices.

They are compatible with 32-bit browsers run on 64-bit Vista machines. They are not supported on 64-bit XP machines.

If you have forgotten your username and/or password, please visit: Recover Password

The username cannot be changed, but you can change your password by visiting: Update Password

Your contact email address can be changed by visiting: Update Email

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To retrieve your license key, please visit: My Subscriptions

Only one computer can be going through our services per username. If you would like to use our services on multiple computers, please purchase a new subscription with a different username. For additional information, please see our Terms of Use.

To download your software, please visit: My Downloads

The download will be available for 14 days after you purchase the software unless you ordered the Extended Download Service. Customers purchasing through Plimus will have the download available for 24 hours unless you ordered the Extended Download.

Log on to My Account Home, click on “My Downloads” on the left, then go to the “Reorder Extended Download Services” box on the right.

If you do not have any available downloads, you may have not ordered the extended download guarantee. Please log into My Account Home, and choose “My Downloads” on the left, and check the “Reorder Extended Download Service” box on the right.

The download time varies depending on the product you purchased and the type of Internet connection you have. We encourage customers with a Dial-Up connection to purchase a Back Up CD.

You can choose the Auto-bill feature on your account to automatically renew your subscription just prior to expiration (on the credit card we have on file), or you can reorder through the Anonymizer website. Please enter your current username and password under “Returning User” and the purchase will be applied to your current subscription.

Please run the “Configuration Wizard” to restore the browser setting or click on “Running in Secure Mode” and ensure that “Running in Insecure Mode” is shown when you order the software.

It usually takes 1-2 weeks before your account is created. Activation for these types of payment is contingent on delivery time from the postal service. If, after this time, your account has not been created, please call Anonymizer Support at 1-888-270-0141 or 1-858-202-5084 for assistance Monday through Friday or Email Support.

Refunds will only be given within 30 days of purchase or renewal of Anonymizer software and services made on the Anonymizer website. If you purchased the software through a reseller, please contact that company for refund information. To request a refund, please contact Anonymizer Customer Support:

Monday - Friday, 7:30am-5:00pm
Within US: 1-888-270-0141
Outside US: 1-858-202-5084

Please call Anonymizer Support at 1-888-270-0141 or 1-858-202-5084 for assistance Monday through Friday.

Anonymizer also offers the option to pay via cash, check, or money order. Please click mail payment and scroll to the bottom for the address and information on how to download and print the order form.

To turn your Auto-bill setting on/off, please visit: My Subscriptions. The selection in Bold is the current setting.

An email will be sent to the email address on file 7 days prior to auto-billing, 14 days prior to account expiration, on the day the account expires, and on the day auto-billing is scheduled for processing.

If you purchased the service initially from another company, or through PayPal, we do not have your credit card information on file. If the service you initially purchased is no longer available, you will not be automatically billed. If the card on file has expired or changed, you will need to renew through the website or call Customer Support at 1-888-270-0141 or 1-858-202-5084 for assistance Monday through Friday.

Autobilling occurs 45 days prior to expiration. This allows time for any billing errors that occur to be corrected before the customer suffers a lapse in service. The new expiration date will be from your current expiration date, not the date of the autobill.

Anonymizer maintains a staunch commitment to listening to our customers’ anonymity concerns and needs, thus providing the highest quality offerings available. Some of our products provide important capabilities, but are neither unique nor distinctive to Anonymizer. To ensure we are focusing on the core Anonymizer tools, and making them the best they can be, we have decided to discontinue offering our Digital Shredder Lite and Anti-Spyware features as of September 15, 2008. We remain focused on our unparalleled Anonymizer Universal, Anonymous Surfing, Total Net Shield, and Nyms services.

To cancel an account, please call Anonymizer Support Monday through Friday at 1-888-270-0141 or 1-858-202-5084, or Email Support at any time.