The Internet provides many opportunities but also poses many dangers and risks, including escalating threats from attackers. These risks can be especially high in some countries with increasing demands for censorship and surveillance. With this in mind, anonymous surfing makes sense. But, to protect distributions, browsers, and applications against snoopers, you would typically need a detailed understanding of the network and your operating system. Or, you can take a shortcut and use JonDonym, an anonymization service that prevents exposure of your surfing habits and data.

The Service

JonDonym is available for download as open source software in various versions. One version is a complete Live distribution based on Debian that includes both CD and DVD images. Another approach is to secure your personal Linux installation with a JonDonym client and a matching Firefox profile called JonDoFox. A console version of the software and a modified version of Firefox called JonDoBrowser [1] are also available.

The software's functionality is the same throughout. Internet access is achieved through a local proxy that encrypts the data and forwards it with an anonymous IP address to a cascade of mix servers [2] available in different countries and maintained by multiple independent vendors. They serve packets of data to obfuscated paths so that attacks on and recording of your traffic remain ineffective.

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