Free WebProxies. Are they safe to use?

I've found a list of good free web proxies, but I don't feel that they are safe to use. I suspect they could be honeypots set up the government agencies or hackers in order to harvest your data. It is unlikely anyone would offer a proxy server for free given all the maintenance costs. To be safe, I think using a paid VPN is probably much safer especially one which is paid without any links to my real identity. What do you think?

 

What do you have on your computer that is so valuable to hackers.?
I have nothing of any financial value at all on my pc so a thousand hackers could swarm in and i would not be at all be moved.

Unfortunately in this age of the internet has come with it increasing states of mass paranoia.

 

HideMyAss have a set of updating free proxies in a list. Their VPN may not be great but the proxies are not their own and are a pretty good list to grab proxies from. Don't do any important banking through proxies, just your average non important stuff, and make sure to have an add on such as HTTPS everywhere installed.

 

I think the paranoia is justified, consider we only have partial control over our electronic data. We can lock down everything on our end, and to some extent control the transmission and storage from our side, but we still have to trust that the person we exchange with is doing the same. It's like trade between two kingdoms. Even if you protect your kingdom against threat, and transport your resources in a armored transport (encrypted container); you still have no way of forcing the other kingdom to properly secure those resources after delivery or to transport return data in a similar fashion. Regardless of what happens next, the company (bigger kingdom) you exchange data (resources) with is usually better protected than you are against loss. So why wouldn't you be paranoid?

 

If you have nothing of value on your computer and you access nothing of value from it, why are you using one ?

As for free proxies, I would never trust one. You don't know who is behind them (and I don't mean only government), and you might regret it later.

 

What a paranoid comment.!!
My advice to you would be to disconnect from the internet and cease computing forever and save yourself all that nailbiting jazz that comes with with heightened paranoia.

 

What a ridiculous comment Whether you're fine with somebody using your system as a part of a Botnet is your business. But for the rest of us non-paranoid, but aware of the real dangers out there, it's a valid concern.

OP, free or paid proxies aren't deemed safe or unsafe by whether you pay or not. It's who is behind the operation, what measures to they have in place to protect them, their users and data and how they handle LEA requests that matters. You would be wise to not jump into the first "Hide yourself for absolutely free!" link you find in Google of course. They are often scams, hacked, or go down a lot. There are a lot of threads in here discussing the various options. Just do a little studying before signing anything, and you should be fine.

 

Not a ridiculous comment at all if the suspicion is not justified in any way.Government agencies behind every proxy service...oh come on that sounds as paranoid as it gets.

 

I don't recall anyone saying the government was behind every proxy service...and I'm pretty sure I can read well. This isn't about "scared" it's about CYA. And, it seems you don't know a whole lot about fronts, or don't care that they exist. Anyway, I'm not going to keep going back and forth. Your system, your threat level.

 

Why would they not own proxy services. If homeland security wants to catch extremists before anything bad happens, whats the best way. They communicate like everyone else through the internet. If you are an extremist you are not gonna air your plans on your average Comcast connection, you are gonna look for a way to hide yourself, most likely a proxy. So having a set up as homeland where key words getting flagged across proxy services is a smart idea.