If you're not interested in long, weepy e-mails from the 'Lodge Sisters' outlining their loving, envioronmentally conscious nature, it's better to surf anonymously. This can be done quite easily from any terminal in a public library. Michigan State University and the University of Michigan are very large institutions who can't possibly keep track of every user. You can get a free e-mail under any name or address from Yahoo and click on the blue sign up now, or Hotmail and choose hotmail from the tabs at the top of the page. Just follow directions and you'll have an e-mail account. My hacker friends tell me that Hotmail accounts are the best at not narcing on their users and the least willing to give up information to authorities.

If the 'sisters' should happen to send you an e-mail back, report them immediatly to yahoo, or whatever e-mail provider they use. Be as indignant as possible about being harassed by these racist frauds.

To surf anonymously, go to Anonymizer or The Cloak and follow instructions. This site provides you with free anonymous web surfing just enter the url in the box. Be patient, it takes a little longer to get to sites. I tried it and it does shield your I.P. address. It's a good idea to go to the anonymizer before you log on to your e-mail account, especially if you're at the University of Arizona.

Another way that people are surfing anonymously is by using someone else's network proxy. Hackers often do this surreptitiously, hacking into a private network and hiding behind its proxy. While this is effective, it may not be completely legal. You should only use someone else's proxy with their expressed permission. Also, not all proxies will be effective anonymizers out of the box, so it is best to coordinate the setup with the proxy's rightful administrator.

CyberArmy, a network of tech savvy privacy activists, has a list of known proxies scattered about the globe www.cyberarmy.com/proxy.html. If you are able to obtain permission to use one of these proxy computers, go to your Web browser preferences and enter the proxy address under "Proxies." You will need to enter both the address and the port number. If possible, set the proxy method to "Tunnel" -- which creates a secure connection between you and the proxy. All current Web browsers in any operating system, from Netscape and Internet Explorer to Opera and Mozilla, have this functionality built in. With those settings in place you can surf the Web anonymously just as you would with your own in-house proxy.

In addition to their proxy list, CyberArmy has a lot of information about Internet privacy. A lot of it is geared toward hacker-types but one useful tool for everyone is the Environment Check . This page will tell you just what kind of information you are broadcasting to the world when you surf the Web. Information culled by the Environment Check includes what kind of computer you have, the version and type of browser you use, the Web address of your ISP and your computer's network address. Try Environment Check with a proxy and then without a proxy to see anonymity in action.

For the less tech-experienced activist, PGP and proxies may not be the best way to fight Carnivore. Organizations like StopCarnivore, ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation are good places to start for finding a grassroots solution to a digital problem.

If you want to mess with libraries that use spy technology to harass protestors, you can delete your history. If you are using Netscape type control H, choose edit, choose select all and hit the delete key. Then go into the edit drop down menu, choose preferences, when a grey box pops up, change the number of days in the history box to zero, hit clear history, hit yes then hit clear location bar, type ok and exit. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, choose the history icon (the one with the sun-dial) click on the today icon, in the edit drop down menu, choose select all and hit the delete key. Then choose the drop down tools menu, select internet options, when you get the grey box change the number of days to zero, click delete files webpages you surfed, click clear history, click apply, click ok. Just for fun, while you're there, why not change the Home Page setting in the top box to a nice A.I.M. website. Just type in the URL. For example: http://www.pathshop.com /~ Don't forget to check for hidden spy-ware by going to the public icon and checking all the files for suspicious files. For our friends in Tucson, click on the MN-PUB# icon(whatever # you're on), then chose C, Temp, and look through the files for anything that sounds like spy-ware and delete it. For most libraries, it's easy to get into these files from public terminals. If you are harassed in any way by library employees, contact the ACLU in your area and check with your closest AIM branch about your legal rights.