It is hard to imagine life today without the internet. The innovations of information technology have greatly impacted cultures and lifestyles. Many of the innovations, which have come from some of the world's best minds, have practically brought the world to our fingertips.

We are now able to do things that were unimaginable or just dreamed of. From the comforts of our computers today we are able to build business and social contacts, as well as have access to on-demand information sources.

The information available might be for lifesaving, for pleasure, or for problem solving. For whatever reason we find to use the internet, we owe a great debt to those have forever changed our lives through their innovative technological contributions.

There is no doubt about the impact of technology and how it has positively affected our lives, yet there is the drawback of abuse that invades the internet. Unfortunately abusers are using the internet to advance their unscrupulous interests, usually at the expense of others.

They are commonly known as hackers. They operate on the knowledge that every user has an internet protocol (IP) address which leaves a trail whenever a site is visited and is easily traceable.

For this reason, it is important to know that every site you have ever visited is traceable back to you through your IP address and a hacker can follow your trail back to your computer. Once there the hacker is then able to snatch vital information from your computer.

Your IP has been saved on all logs of the websites that were visited, as well as the e-mails that have been sent out. Remember when using your regular IP during all of your transactions, you are publishing information that you probably would prefer to be kept private.

In addition to your IP address becoming public knowledge, your geographic location can also be determined. The knowledge that someone knows your internet history is rather scary; it is as though someone was stalking you. Eventually doubts and insecurity about online privacy will cause you to wonder if security ever existed on the internet.

It is vitally important to be able to feel secure about surfing the internet and not have to worry about exposing your private information. Fortunately there is help for this dilemma. To address your concerns you will need to take precautionary steps to protect your identity while doing online activities. The installation of software that is specifically designed for privacy protection is the simplest method of preventing hackers from stealing your information.

The software's ability to protect your identity is done by masking your IP address. Using a mask allows you to surf anonymously, even though they know someone was there, the IP is not your correct address. The software gives you a different IP each time you surf which gives you privacy as you surf the internet. Also, you are able to change the value so that each time a new page loads your identity changes also.