Computer hacker group offers stealth Internet surfing

A group calling itself "Hacktivismo" launched a web browser that promises to protect the privacy of Internet surfers from "hostile governments" or "data thieves."

"Torpark," a modified version of the popular Mozilla Firefox browser, enables computer users to travel the Internet in a way that "leaves no tracks behind," Hacktivismo said in a statement.

Hacktivismo's website describes it as an international group of hackers, human rights workers, lawyers and artists that evolved from the renowned Texas-based hacker organization called "Cult of the Dead Cow."

Torpark changes the unique numbers used by websites to identify individual computers online every few minutes to stymie "hostile governments, data thieves" or other trackers, according to Hacktivismo.

For example, someone could go online using a home computer in Ghana and it might appear to websites that they were at a university computer in Germany, according to Hacktivismo.

"We live in a time where acquisition technologies are cherry picking and collating every aspect of our online lives," Hacktivismo founder Oxblood Ruffin said in a statement.

"Torpark continues Hacktivismo's commitment to expanding privacy rights on the Internet. And the best thing is it's free. No one should have to pay for basic human rights, especially the right of privacy."

Torpark also hides computer users' identities from companies providing the Internet services, according to its creators.
--AFP