Some Internet users believe that they are virtually protected from the rest of the world by being anonymous on the Web. In fact, anonymity has many benefits. But, as often happens, the devil is in the details. Let’s talk about the things you can’t even hide your identity or even protect yourself on the internet.

You cannot protect yourself even with a hidden IP address:

1. From phishing sites, viruses and other malware. Do not fall into a false sense of security: do not follow suspicious links, do not download software from unofficial sources, regularly update your antivirus, even if you act anonymously.
2. From the possibility of data collection by your provider. Yes, the provider will not see your correspondence in Telegram and Internet resources that you visit, but will be able to learn something. For example, the use of the service to hide the address, the amount of traffic, the time of access to the network, the duration of the session.
3. From the possibility of data collection by the service provider. This is the most dangerous moment.
4. From tracking your network activity to the so-called “digital footprint”.

In addition, the sites you visit can easily get a lot of information about your computer and about you personally, even if the address of the computer remains confidential. The sum of this data is the “digital footprint” of the user that can be tracked. It’s even easier if you log into social networks or Google services. Obviously, in the latter case, you cannot maintain your anonymity in front of the world’s greatest researcher.

And the weakest link to anonymity is the services that provide it. Logically the easiest way is to get any information about you on the server where all your traffic goes. Therefore, do not trust providers without a paid service package. They are very likely to share information about users with third parties.