Digital Anonymity

TorBrowser for Windows – Digital Anonymity and Circumvention

The

Tor Browser

is designed to increase the anonymity of your activities on the Internet. It disguises your identity and protects your on-line activities from many forms of Internet surveillance.

Tor

can also be used to bypass Internet filters.

What you will get from this guide:

The ability to conceal your digital identity from the websites that you visit.

The ability to conceal your on-line destinations from

Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

and other surveillance mechanisms.

The ability to bypass Internet censorship and filtering rules.

1. Introduction to the Tor Browser

Note:

If you are in a location where access to the

Tor Project

website is blocked, you can request a copy of the

Tor Browser Bundle

installer via email. To do this, send an email to

gettor@torproject.org

with the version of Tor you want in the body of the email. E.g.

windows

if you have a Windows computer,

OsX

if you use an Apple Computer or

Linux

if you use a Linux based computer. You will receive a reply to your email with a link to download the installer via

Dropbox

. Further details about this feature are available on the

Tor Project website

.

1.0 Other tools like the Tor Browser

GNU Linux, Mac OS and other Microsoft Windows Compatible Programs

:

The

Tor Browser

is available for

GNU Linux

,

Mac OS

,

Microsoft Windows

and

Android

operating systems.

Tor

is the most recommended and rigorously tested tool for keeping your online activities anonymous. But we would like to list some other recommended solutions here:

Riseup VPN

is a free

Virtual Private Network

(

VPN

) proxy server for

Linux

,

MAC

,

Android

and

Microsoft Windows

.
Psiphon3

is a free commercial

Virtual Private Network

(

VPN

) solution for

Microsoft Windows

and

Android OS

.
Dynaweb FreeGate

is a free proxy tool for

Microsoft Windows

.
Your Freedom

is a commercial proxy tool that also offers a free (though slower) service. It is available for

Linux

,

Mac OS

and

Microsoft Windows

.

1.1 Things you should know about the Tor Browser before you start

The

Tor Browser

is a software tool designed to increase the privacy and security of your Internet activities and habits. It masks your identity and your on-line browsing from many forms of Internet surveillance.

Tor

can also be useful as a secure means of circumventing electronic restrictions so that you may access or publish blogs and news reports.

Tor

protects your

anonymity

by routing communications through a distributed network of servers run by volunteers from all over the world. Using

Tor

hides the sites you visit from potential onlookers, and hides your location/identity from those sites. The software is designed also to make sure servers in the

Tor

network

don’t know

both your location

and

the sites you are visiting.

Tor

also takes steps to encrypt the communication to and through its network,

but

this measure can not extend all the way to a website which is sending or receiving content over non-encrypted channels (i.e. not providing https access). Nevertheless, the advantage of using Tor when accessing such sites is that

Tor

can secure your communication up to the step between the last of the

Tor

servers and the non-secure site. This confines the chance to intercept the content to that last step.

The

Tor Browser Bundle

consists of the

Tor

software and a modified version of the

Firefox

web browser, which is designed to provide extra protection while using it. The browser bundle also includes

NoScript

and

HTTPS-Everywhere

add-ons.

Note

: There is a trade-off between anonymity and speed. Because Tor facilitates anonymous browsing by bouncing your traffic through volunteers’ computers and servers in various parts of the world, it will definitely be slower than using other web browsers on your computer.

Definitions

:

Bridge Relay

: A Bridge Relay is a

Tor

server that is not publicly announced. If you choose to use a bridge, the server can provide you with access to the

Tor

network even if

Tor

is blocked in your country.
Port:

In this chapter, a port is an access point through which software communicates with services running on other networked computers. If a URL, such as

www.google.com

, gives you the ‘street address’ of a service, then the port tells you which ‘door’ to use once you reach the correct destination. When browsing the Web, you typically use port 80 for unsecured sites (

http://mail.google.com

) and port 443 for secured ones (

https://mail.google.com

).
Proxy:

A proxy is a software intermediary that runs on your computer, on your local network, or somewhere else on the Internet, that helps to relay your communication toward its final destination.
Route:

A route is the communication path on the Internet between your computer and the destination server.