Being anonymous on the Net isn't easy

David Kesmodel of the Wall Street Journal tried to live anonymously on the Internet and found it wasn't easy:

So how exactly was my privacy protected? For one thing, news sites weren't able to show me ads based on what I'd read previously. And since my IP address changed frequently, e-commerce sites and search engines couldn't correlate my many searches with a single IP address.

That was the upside. All the drawbacks, though, gnawed at me. I'm a big fan of convenience, and I don't mind a little personalization, which by definition means a Web site needs to know it's me.

What's more, no software can guarantee anonymity in the event you're accused of a crime. A prosecutor with a search warrant, or even the other side in a civil case, can get access to your computer and try to retrace your steps. To be sure, anonymizing services can make it much tougher for authorities to trace you -- a reason we ought to worry about the appeal of this software to criminals.

See what he did to cover his tracks.