Please recommend good privacy setup

I'm new to privacy software/services in general, but I would be willing to pay to remain anonymous and untraceable while browsing on the web and in terms of applications I use. e.g. if an installer downloads a file, I'd prefer the sender not see my real ip or location. also paypal once froze my US account because i paid for something while in europe. I suppose they saw that from the ip, so in the future I'd like some control over which country paypal or other banks or entities think i'm transacting from.

Please suggest.

p.s. I use Hotspot Shield Free at the moment (on demand only); for basic anonymous web browsing it's good. And earlier today I also installed TOR on a virtual machine to test it - first impressions are positive, but i still have lots of questions?

edit: typos

 

Not to sound like a smart ass, but you really need to research some yourself. Simply saying "Give me good security" isn't going to work here for a couple of reasons.

1. Everyone you ask will give you a different answer, in part because:
2. "Good Security" isn't necessarily "Good for You" security.

We don't know what your specific needs are or where you are sensitive. There is no "One Setup is absolutely Secure".. it is all a balance between what direct risks you have versus want to prevent.

 

I'm doing research, that's why I posted. That's why mentioned installing TOR on a virtual machine. And I've done searches here but I'm unclear where to start. Lots of members say good things about zerobank, but at least one vocal poster hates it. I also saw BolehVPN in another thread, but apparently they didn't hook the member up with their service after payment, ...

Anyway, I'm looking for a names of services and software that generally have a good reputation on Wilders, and I thought by asking people to recommend a setup I'd get a bunch of suggestions that I should know about, and if appropriate sounding for me, check out and test on virtual machines...

 

Physical security is key. System encryption is also wise. And VMs are good, for many reasons. One of my test systems is an Ubuntu 10.04 VM with encrypted home directory.

For anonymous/private net access, XeroBank is my favorite. I've read that Cryptohippie is good, but their transfer cap is low. I've also tested CryptoCloud, and it seemed OK. BolehVPN sounds interesting.

Enjoy and share

 

I think Returnil and Sandboxie are pretty good for privacy. They prevent permanent changes from being made to your computer and they leave no traces of activity.

 

What about banking? For example, I want to buy software using paypal. The software comes in the form of a license key sent to my email so the physical billing address doesn't matter. However, my current paypal account is in the US while I'm in Europe. If I make a payment from here, and they see from the ip that it's from Europe, they may suspend my account (due to suspicious behavior or whatever...). It happened to me six months ago albeit after a money transfer to another (European) paypal account, but in any case, how can I make it look as if I'm logging on to my paypal account from the US?

Details: I now have Tor running on my laptop (Vidalia buddle), can it be made to go through a US node so that my ip shows US? I also have Anchor Free's Hotspot Shield VPN on demand. It usually shows my ip as coming from California, so that's what I've been using for US banking, but (a) I'm not sure if that's what they see at the other end, and (b) I'd prefer East Coast as that's where my current paypal billing address is.

 

Looks like you need a proxy server. Perhaps you can buy a host supported PHP(not exceeds 10$ per year in USA), then build a PHP proxy, it is safer than google a proxy server.

 

Thanks. I'll look into that - it's all new to me so not sure how to start. I'll be scroogling to learn about this, but suggestions are welcome too.

 

Anonymous money is nontrivial. Authorities don''t like money laundering, obviously, and anonymous money could be part of that. Anyway, although establishing anonymous accounts is easy, once you have anonymous/private net access, getting money into them is not. Advice that I've seen basically amounts to security through obscurity -- setting up many anonymous accounts with various services, and transferring money from one to another. Supposedly, even if you start with a transfer from a known bank account, following the money through many transfers in multiple jurisdictions will be impractical, unless you're a high-value target or the amounts transferred are very large. Actually, that is money laundering, isn't it

 

I login to my paypal account while connected to Xerobank all the time. And I am a U.S. citizen. I have never had a problem.

 

My money is not anonymous since my paypal and bank accounts and credit cards show my real name. I just want my physical location at the time of payment for digital goods to be anonymous. Surely that's not money laundering?

 

I misunderstood. Projecting Just use a VPN with a US exit node. There are many inexpensive US-based VPNs.