| |||
| |||
|
| ||||||
|
Why use IDzap to surf the web? Internet privacy has been a hot button issue lately. There has recently been a large number of articles in the main stream media (e.g., Newsweek, BusinessWeek, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, internet News sites such as Yahoo and Lyco, ZDnet, ..., etc.) discussing this issue. You might want to ask
Specifically, what can a web site find out about me? This page shows the information that is passed from your computer to a web site. Is there a solution to this problem? IDzap provides two anonymous web browsing services:
How does IDzap solve my problem? What happens in the background is that the request is first sent to www.idzap.com. The IDzap server makes a request using the identity of IDzap to obtain the page from companyA. When IDzap receives the page, the IDzap server adjusts the hyperlinks to make sure that subsequent requests through clicking the hyperlinks will also be made anonymously. The page content is then sent to the browser of the web user. In this way, companyA will never obtain any user specific information from the web visitor. What is the difference between the free service and the paid IDsecure service? The IDzap free anonymous browsing service protects you from being known to the destination web site. However, the free service does not protect you from your ISP and your firewall admin person. In other words, the link between the user and IDzap is not protected when using the free service. With the IDsecure service, we use encryption technology to hide the URL, and use SSL to protect the communication link. As a result, the entire communication link is protected. Furthermore we provide in the IDsecure service a user configurable mechanism to encrypt the history in your browser. We also support password protected sites in the IDsecure service. Here is a diagram showing the advantages of IDsecure browsing. We have a tabular presentation of the difference between the feature sets of the two services. What about Cookies and Javascript? Cookies and Javascript can cause significant privacy risks. For more details, please visit our FAQ on Cookies and FAQ on Javascript. Because of the security risk, we turned off both cookies and Javascript by default when you use IDzap.com to surf the web. In the free service, the user can choose to turn on Javascript and cookies using our "Setting" page. In the IDsecure service, the user can configure cookies, Javascript, and a set of other security parameters by clicking the "User Preference" on the top of an IDsecure delivered page. If I do all my web surfing through IDzap, then IDzap will know everything about me. What is the difference? In fact, IDzap is committed to protect the privacy of web users. It is absolutely safe to use IDzap as far as privacy is concerned. Please read IDzap's Privacy Policy Statement for more information on how we run this web site. What are the computing requirements in order to use the IDsecure service? To use the IDzap IDsecure service, you need
The service is designed with maximum flexibility in mind, so that you do not need to install any additional software on your computer. How do I login to the IDsecure anonymous brwosing service? The first step in using the IDzap IDsecure service is to login to the IDsecure servers. The login URL for the IDsecure service is https://member.idzap.com/ When you go to the IDsecure service at https://member.idzap.com/, you will see the web page loaded with two text boxes on the top of the page where you can type your username and password. Type your username and password into the appropriate boxes and click "Login". When the username and password are authenticated, a page will be presented showing your IDsecure User Preferences. You can start surfing from there. Please read the question How do I use the IDzap anonymous brwosing service to surf the web? for more details. I cannot login to the IDsecure service. Why? Here are some things to check:
How do I use IDzap IDsecure service to surf the web? After you are logged in, you will see that the login box is replaced by another text box on the top with the heading "IDsecure surf:". This is the place where we type in the URL of the destination web site that you want to visit anonymously and securely. Type in the URL of the destination web site in this textbox and then click the "go" button. The request to retrieve the web page will then be routed through the IDzap IDsecure servers. The IDsecure servers retrieve the web page, do some processing on it, and then deliver the web page to the user's browser. If you look at the "address" or "location" box on the top of the browser, you will see a URL of the form https://fr0.idzap.com/dsahkllkjdsafjlkadswhere the garbage-like part is the encrypted URL of the destination site. This is what your ISP will see and hence your ISP will not know which web site you actually visited. Using the "User Preference" button at the top of the page, you can also choose to encrypt the web page title that goes into the browser history. You can use hyperlinks as usual. That is, if you click on a link in a page retrieved through IDzap, your subsequent request will also be routed through IDzap and hence you are protected. You can also use bookmarks/favorites. Please read the next question on this. Can I use Bookmarks (Netscape) or Favorites (IE) with the IDsecure service? Absolutely, you can use Bookmarks/Favorites with the IDsecure service. To do that, you first go to a page through the IDsecure service. Then you create a new Bookmark/Favorite item. Then next time you go to that item, you will get the page through the IDsecure service. This means that you are protected by the IDsecure service when the page corresponding to this new bookmark is retrieved. The original Bookmarks/Favorites can still be used. However, you will not be routed through IDzap when using those old items, which means that the old bookmarks are not protected. It is important to note that if you selected the User Preference option of encrypting the web page title/history, then the browser will list the bookmark with an encrypted string as the title. The bookmark still works, but it may be difficult for a user to figure out from the encrypted text which web site an encrypted bookark corresponds to. If you want a bookmark with clear text title, you can select "plain text" for "Web page title/history" in your User Preference setting. Can I use web based email with the IDsecure service? Sure, the IDsecure service supports web based email such as yahoo mail, hotmail, netscape mail, ... etc. In order to use web based email, you will need to set your browser so that it accepts cookies and javascript. You will also need to configure the IDsecure service to enable cookies, enable javascript, and allow popup windows. This can be done by clicking "Setting" and select the appropriate options. Here is a summary of the IDsecure User Preference for yahoo mail and hotmail:
What is the subscription policy of the IDsecure service? For a new IDsecure subscription, we will send you a confirmation email with your registration code. Your subscription period starts when we send the confirmation email. When you renew IDsecure service and your existing subscription is already expired, your subscription period starts when we send the confirmation email. When you renew IDsecure service and your existing subscription is not yet expired, we extend your subscription from the expiration date of your existing subscription. In other words, you will not "lose days" when you renew early. |
Home |
Subscribe |
Services |
Privacy Statement |
Site Policy |
FAQ's |
Contact
Copyright of pages retrieved through IDzap
resides with the originator of those pages.
IDzap LLC owns the copyright of the IDzap created portion.
Copyright © 1999, 2002, IDzap, LLC. All rights reserved.