As a University of California student, I spend the majority of my time online, as the Internet is an essential element to my achieving academic success. Whether it is completing online homework assignments, reading course material, conducting research, watching Calculus YouTube videos, or forming study groups via Facebook, the Internet enhances my intellectual achievements. If it were not for the consistent availability of this vast array of knowledge, communication, and interconnectivity right at my fingertips, it would be difficult and in some cases impossible to perform my every day scholastic tasks.

However, there are many students, including myself, who are frustrated with the university’s monitoring every single action that the students take online. For example, as each student connects to the university’s WIFI network, he or she is asked to complete a comprehensive survey and is warned about the consequences of any online behavior that can be considered malicious. The school administrators further instill fear in my fellow students by cautioning WIFI users that all downloading activity is under careful university supervision and monitoring. I understand it is even worse at other schools where administrators block access to certain popular sites. But even the watchdog behavior alone creates a climate that runs counter to not only the freedom of thought and speech which public universities are supposed to foster, but also infringes on our right to privacy.

So what? Why should this concern you if you’re not a college student? Because the university watchdogs act in a similar fashion to lots of other entities in the outside world. In fact, many corporations and institutions monitor online activities much more than universities currently do.

Similarly to how universities monitor online student activity, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be tracking you as you read this very sentence. Not only that, but they could potentially be exposing your most personal information using your distinct IP address, cookies and other information that you’re leaving behind.  And then of course there are the recent revelations about what the NSA was doing.

I believe that every individual, student or not, should be entitled to freedom, whether it be the freedom to speak his or her mind or the freedom to use the Internet. My frustration inspired me to look for solutions to this problem.

I discovered cookie blockers such as G-zapper, Cookie Pal and Cookie Editor that allow users to actually control the cookies they set up on their computer. G-zapper is used to block Google’s cookies and it enables individuals to maintain anonymity online. Cookie Pal is handy in that it protects your privacy by managing your preferences and only remitting cookies based on the ones you decide necessary. Cookie Editor, my preferred cookie blocker, provides a program that grants users permission to actually view, edit and delete browsing history as a way to protect their online activity. Both students and other web usersare able to avoid the cyber watchdog.

I also discovered the option of using a proxy server, “the middle guy between your browser and the web server,” as my brother put it. He suggested that this would block the university’s access to my identity as I visit all of my favorite sites. Because free proxy servers are hard to find and are often taken down quickly, maintaining a free proxy server may be somewhat tiresome.  There are also cases of fraudsters setting up bogus proxy servers just to grab your information.  The legitimate onesdo, nonetheless, allow users to access sites that may be blocked at schools, workplaces or other administered locations.

I, and a number of my friends, found that the best form of online protection and security, however, was using virtual private network (VPN) software. It is actually quite shocking that more college students, including myself, were not familiar with this concept before. VPNs, essentially, work to protect your computer from malware attacks, spam, hackers, and most importantly, your personal information and anonymity. One version available for free (it’s ad-supported) is AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield  VPN. The software enabled me to connect to my university’s WIFI, surf the web unidentifiably, download programs anonymously, and escape the unwanted scrutiny  of school administrators. A VPN ultimately restored the personal freedom that I had been giving up every time I connected to my university’s WIFI network. An added benefit is it encrypts all your traffic so you are less exposed to hackers trying to steal your passwords or credit cards when using public WiFi.

Regardless to what extent you value online freedom, it is important to address the fact that students, workers, or any unprotected WIFI users are putting themselves at risk when they unintentionally grant others the right to freely obtain personal information and concede such authority to invigilators.

Whether it is Cookie Editor, Hotspot Shield VPN, or some other software of your choice, I would strongly advocate using protection.  As my mother always tells me, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

 About the author

Diana Salnik, the daughter of Russian immigrants, grew up in Germany and Northern California and attends the University of California, San Diego where she is a second year student majoring in Management Science and Political Science.  She is a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, speaks French and Russian and enjoys blogging and traveling.