Finding a reliable, working proxy server can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. However, if you know where to look, these proverbial needles are everywhere. But at the same time, most of them are free – meaning that they can be plagued with problems. In fact, free and open proxy servers are notorious for being playgrounds for hackers and spammers.

Of course, due to the amount of people using free servers, the chances that you are going to get hacked are not huge. On the other hand, these servers are not very reliable because of the amount of users. Too many users at one time means that the server will be bogged down and thus slow, ruining your web surfing experience.

As well, open proxy servers really don’t provide much protection. While they may in fact hide your IP address and provide some level of security, they are not nearly as dependable as paid proxies or other types of internet protection.

If security and privacy are your chief concerns, don’t despair. There are lots of different proxies out there, and many of them offer varying degrees of anonymity.