PrivacyGirl.com

Setting-up an Anonymous Web Site

Armed with a search warrant, no blogger, poster or website owner is truly anonymous. Just ask Rosemary Port, the blogger that Google outed for calling Liskula Cohen a ho. If you're even thinking of doing something that could be considered libelous or otherwise illegal... don't! Free speech is not an absolute right. Now, if your reasons for setting-up a blog or website while maintaining some degree of privacy are not sinister in nature, then please read on...

Starting a Blog

You can start a blog absolutly free and (within reason) anonymously by just going to blogger.com and signing up. You can signup using an alternate ID and your URL would be something like "myblog.blogspot.com". If you own a domain name, you can create a CNAME record and have your domain name (www.myblog.com) resolve to your Blogger page. One note of caution... Blogger is owned by Google. I normally shy away from anything associated with Google since I don't believe their "don't be evil" motto. However, using an alternate identity and ssh-tunneling (discussed latter) I feel pretty secure.

Starting a Web Site

If you want to start a website, the first thing you'll need is a domain name. There are many domain name registrars to choose from. I like Dynadot because of the low cost of $9.25 per year for .com domains and they offer "domain privacy service" for an additional $2.00 per year. With the domain privacy service, your Whois information is replaced with their address, phone number and email address. Any contact regarding your domain is scanned or recorded and emailed to you. In addition to low cost domains, Dynadot offers $15.99 per year single Root SSL Certificate (not chained) AND they accept money orders.

If you are going to run a e-commerce site, then you have a few choices for keeping your privacy. Cash only (not practical), setup the business, banking and merchant account in the name of a nominee, use Google Checkout or use PayPal. See the step-by-step for the last two.

Shop around for a webhost that meets your needs and budget. I would recommend using a VPS (Virtual Private Server) rather then shared hosting. Pay the extra few dollars for a dedicated IP address (needed for SSH and SFTP login). Look for a provider that accepts money order payment. One thing that is a must... make sure that all your "alternate" information matches. The address, phone number and ISP location will all be scrutinized before they will open an account... especially when paying by money order. Use a voicemail phone number and valid email address because that's how you'll be contacted if there are questions. Reply to any questions via live chat or email. Don't get upset with the business office, they're just trying to do their job... filtering out spammers and other low-life creatures. You won't have any problem accessing your account once you've satisfied the business office. Please read the following step-by-step procedure.

Pay for any service in advance and in full with a money order. Remember, you're not trying to defraud anyone... you're just keeping your life private.

Step-by-step

Your ISP location may be scrutinized when signing up with some services. Most don't care, however when signing up with a webhost, the business office will verify that all your "alternate" information matches before they'll open an account. Using a proxy or tor when signing up for a webhost will raise red flags and cause all kinds of grief. Instead, use a FREE NetZero dial-up account to avoid this problem.

The NetZero dial-up will be very slow but you only need the dial-up connection once. First, you'll need to get a domain name. Use your alternate ID and broadband connection to signup for a domain name. Dynadot is a good choice because they're cheap and they accept money orders. Pay the extra $2.00 for their "domain privacy service", then mail them a money order. Wait a few days, then use your broadband connection and run a Whois on your new domain name. Write down the address and phone number reported in the Whois database. If you used Dynadot, the address will probably be San Mateo... which is near San Fransisco, California.

The next step must to be done from a Windows machine. Use your broadband connection and signup for a FREE NetZero account. Lookup a dial-up number on the NetZero site that's near the city reported by Whois (ex. San Fransisco's area code is 415). Use your broadband connection and visit the webhost site you want to use. Do all the steps needed to order service and write down all steps but stop before entering your name, address, etc. Now unplug the broadband connection and use the NetZero dial-up. Order the webhost service and use the address and phone number from Whois. Use a yahoo or gmail email address NOT the Whois email address. The webhost will contact you by email so you don't want to use Whois email.

Everything should now match and your application should be accepted. Mail in your money order after you receive your order confirmation. Once the account is active, you won't have any problem accessing your account. The webhost will email you a list of their name servers. You'll need to login to your domain registrar and change the default name servers. After a couple of days, your domain name will propagate out and your website will be available to the public.

It is possible to setup an e-commerce business and still maintain your privacy. No matter how you do it, you're going to have to open both a Business and Merchant account. The following methods have their good and bad points. You have better control over your site by running your own checkout but there's more work to do. Using Google or PayPal is simpler but you give up control and the per-transaction cost is probably higher. These are things you'll need to investigate and determine yourself.

If you want your customers to use your checkout, then you'll need: an SSL certificate, Payment Gateway and Merchant account. Here again... I'd recommend Dynadot for the SSL Certificate. They offer a single Root SSL Certificate for $15.99 per year that's suitable for a small e-commerce business and they accept money orders. You'll also need a Payment Gateway. This is the service that screens the credit card transactions originating from YOUR checkout site for errors and fraud. There are many available such as Authorize.Net or your Merchant account may offer a package deal with one. Last, you'll need a Merchant account. This is the bank that actually handles the money transfer from your customers bank to your Business account.

Accepting credit card payments can be done with Google Checkout or PayPal. You'll still need to open a Business account but not an SSL Certificate. Google or Paypal will act as the Payment Gateway and Merchant account. Google says on their Google Checkout Merchant Help "Providing your Social Security number is optional" and you should be able to just use your business name. It appears that PayPal now requires your SSN or tax-ID to open a Merchant account. That wasn't always the case. Personally, I don't see the problem because I'm not about to cheat on my taxes and... your SSN or tax-ID doesn't show up anywhere on your Merchant account if someone were to hack in. Just be sure to use your business name and not your real name when setting up the Merchant account.