Trace me, trace me!

There were two blog posts I noticed this week concerning the tracking of IP addresses. Curious Hamster spotting the Murdoch crowd doing a bit surreptitious promotion on Wikipedia and Tim Ireland hunting for  sockpuppets.   What I fail to understand is why  anyone trying to hide their identity online doesn't just use a proxy server. There is no shortage of services out there both paid for and free.

Even though I rarely post comments on blogs and I'm not in the slightest bit interested in puppetry, sock or otherwise, I've been a member of Proxify for years. I pay for the full service (why?) and, given how infrequently I use it, I reckon it's worked out costing me about a fiver a time to visit sites anonymously!  But if I ever do want to get up to some mischief making at least I know those bloggers with the gift of forensic analysis won't be able to trace me :)