Internet users, spooked by US spying, seek tools to hide presence on web
Revelations of extent of US spying send internet users in search of anonymising tools to hide their presence and activity on worldwide web

News of the US National Security Agency's surveillance has sent web users scrambling to find new ways to avoid tracking.
It might have seemed paranoid not long ago when internet users used tools to hide their tracks, "shred" data or send self-destructing messages.
Web anonymisers, encryption programs and similar tools have been available for years, but have often been associated with hackers, criminals and other "dark" elements on the internet.
"I think the notion of what is an unreasonable level of paranoia has shifted in the past couple of weeks," said Alex Stamos, an NCC Group security consultant and self-described "white hat" hacker.
Ironically, some tools for eluding detection come from US government-funded programmes to help people living under authoritarian regimes.
"The technologies usable in Tehran or Phnom Penh are just as usable in New York or Washington," said Sascha Meinrath, who heads a New America Foundation programme helping users maintain secure communications in totalitarian countries.