Anonymous Web Proxy Question

I've done quite a bit of reading up on the subject of anonymous browsing to try and understand the technology on the conceptual level (ie not a coder). I'm aware that a properly configured Tor Browser Bundle along with restrictive NoScript settings will provide all the anonymity one needs (for most applications). However, I'm still curious about web proxy services as a lot of people I know still use them.

Sites like anonymouse.org claim to offer complete anonymity in browsing- which I know is a complete exaggeration. However, what I was wondering is that if you were to use such a service which sends ads through as pop-ups, if those third party sites can compromise your privacy if cookies are enabled. Google for example (doubleclick) records the referring site along with a wealth of other information on any of its ads/analytics. At anonymouse for example, the URL of your visit is in plaintext (ie http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en)

So to sum things up, if you have cookies enabled, can third party advertisers see which sites you're visiting via the web proxy, and your actual IP?

 

You may want to try using a Glype proxy. The default configuration has options to encode the URL as well as manage cookies, which should to help to mitigate some of those concerns you mentioned.

Example sites:

• http://webproxy.it.tc/
• http://glype.ebumna.net/

There are some theoretical exploits that can "break" the proxy, but generally if you're blocking scripts/cookies/objects, the chance of your real IP being detected by remote sites is slim to none.