Who's Watching You?
Who's Watching You?
Free public networks, along with pay-for 'private' networks, have made it easy to get online in virtually every city and town. SurfBouncer prevents the identity hacker from gaining access to your data by guarding it at the source, acting as a hotspot shield. We provide a high level of security for these Wi-Fi areas such as coffee shops and other free public or private hotspots. It can also be used when connected to unknown networks such as hotels, airports and cafes. SurfBouncer creates what is known as a 'Personal VPN' encrypted tunnel leading to a secure, external server that protects your data (such as emails sent) from unwanted access. It is also a valuable tool to prevent hackers from gaining access to your computer and stealing your identity. With the introduction of Firesheep in October of 2010, stealing information at wireless hotspots has become child's play.
Without VPN privacy, anyone watching you can see the web sites you are visiting. They can follow you from site to site. Most web email (and even many private email services) are not encrypted. Therefore, anyone who is watching can read your email, if your password is not encrypted. Then, they could even log in as you and send emails in your name.
Instant messenger software is not, typically, encrypted. If you chat on instant messenger, your entire conversation can easily be recorded. Since SurfBouncer encrypts everything, creating a hotspot shield at the source (your PC), this can't happen while using the VPN service.
The owner of every network you are on -- be it a coffee shop, cyber cafe, a friend's house or anywhere else -- knows every place you have surfed to and can capture the same information as someone hacking the network. Surf Bouncer keeps this from happening.
The owner of every web site you visit knows your IP address and, therefore, can find out who and where you are. Large companies keep track of this information and can correlate your IP address across multiple web sites to build a complete profile of your surfing habits. This is referred to as 'data mining'. By picking up small pieces of information from various places and comparing them across databases, they can develop an excellent picture of who you are -- your likes, dislikes and whole personality. By providing our IP address to the web sites you visit, SurfBouncer Personal VPN helps prevent the collection of this information by large, corporate, data-mining and advertising sites. Read more about protecting yourself on the internet on our Personal VPN FAQ.
Hackers can use your IP address to do a domain name lookup. A domain name lookup is a trace of your IP address that will reveal very personal information including your internet service provider (ISP) and, in some cases, your street address and/or home phone number. The SurfBouncer hotspot VPN server acts as an IP 'mask' so that, no matter where you connect from, hackers and other predators cannot trace your IP address back to where you live. Instead, they will get the address of our server and not be able to trace any further. Hackers are thereby prevented from obtaining your IP address and stealing your personal information or launching attacks against your home IP address.
Surf Bouncer believes that your personal information belongs to you and we will never sell, loan or, in any way, provide your IP address or other information for any marketing purpose. Because we use PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments as payment methods, you are assured that we never see your credit card information and, therefore, cannot data-mine you or cross-reference you across databases to create a profile of you.