Product Reviews

Anonymous Surfing Platinum features the standard version of Anonymous Surfing as well as a separate suite of programs called Internet Cleanup. Together they offer 11 distinct utilities to make surfing the web safer and more productive.

The main feature of Anonymous Surfing is Anonymizer. When activated, your IP address (the set of four numbers by which your computer is recognised on the internet) is effectively hidden. Any PC querying your IP address is instead presented with a completely different one generated by Anonymizer's secure server, thus protecting your computer from many forms of attack.

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For additional security, you can opt to encrypt the data sent between your PC and the shielding server.

Anonymous Surfing also features a file shredder, a spyware detector and a disposable email service for use when signing up to new web services. To continue using Anonymous Surfing after the first year requires payment of an annual subscription.

The two most interesting elements in Internet Cleanup are FileSystemGuard and Personal Info Protector. The former allows you to password-protect files and folders against being manipulated or viewed by uninvited users of your computer, while the latter is an encoded vault for sensitive information such as passwords. It also acts as a monitoring system to alert you if any unauthorised program attempts to transmit any of the protected information from your PC.

The other elements in Internet Cleanup perform more familiar functions such as filling in web forms and blocking pop-ups, ads and cookies along with another spyware detector and SpamCatcher.

Few buyers will need all the utilities in this product, but even if you use only the anonymous surfing facility and a couple of others, it represents good value for money.