Should I use Tor?

[Noodle Baker]

I was thinking about using the browser Tor for when I want to be safer online, like online shopping or managing accounts. But is it worth it? Is it just fine to use incognito chrome? 

[ARikozuM]

I would recommend Opera. It contains a VPN based in Canada with the ability to use US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and, I think, Switzerland. 

 

Edit: Singapore, not Switzerland.

[Boomax7299]

At first I thought this was gonna be about the deep/dark web I was like NO STAY AWAY FROM IT

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would recommend Opera. It contains a VPN based in Canada with the ability to use US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and, I think, Switzerland. 

 

Edit: Singapore, not Switzerland.

I'd be cautious about using a free vpn. There probably selling your data

 

For your use id just buy a vpn. Should do all you need. Tor is only for when really need to be private or do illegal things. For a user that's wants extra privacy a vpn is a much better option. 

[Noodle Baker]

5 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd be cautious about using a free vpn. There probably selling your data

 

For your use id just buy a vpn. Should do all you need. Tor is only for when really need to be private or do illegal things. For a user that's wants extra privacy a vpn is a much better option. 

Yeah I could buy a VPN but I was mainly looking at Tor since it's free. 

[YedZed]

16 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would recommend Opera. It contains a VPN based in Canada with the ability to use US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and, I think, Switzerland. 

 

Edit: Singapore, not Switzerland.

Wait, Opera has a free built in VPN? If so, why are people not using the crap out of that?

[Electronics Wizardy]

Just now, YedZed said:

Wait, Opera has a free built in VPN? If so, why are people not using the crap out of that?

They probably sell your data. Why else would it be free. 

[dizmo]

Incognito mode doesn't really do anything unless you're worried about the people who also use your computer.

It just masks local stuff.

 

Don't be so paranoid, especially if you're using a credit card. As long as you're not an idiot you'll be perfectly fine.

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, YedZed said:

Wait, Opera has a free built in VPN? If so, why are people not using the crap out of that?

[YedZed]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

That can't be it...

[ARikozuM]

7 minutes ago, YedZed said:

That can't be it...

It isn't. Opera Media bought Surf Easy and has incorporated it into the browser. 

[YedZed]

Just now, ARikozuM said:

It isn't. Opera Media bought Surf Easy and has incorporated it into the browser. 

That's so fucking cool. Ima use that

[Princess Luna]

Firefox > all

[piemadd]

44 minutes ago, Noodle Baker said:

I was thinking about using the browser Tor for when I want to be safer online, like online shopping or managing accounts. But is it worth it? Is it just fine to use incognito chrome? 

Tor is a browser that has a built in VPN. For one that is much faster, use Opera.

 

http://www.opera.com/

[BuckGup]

It's probably less secure. TLS on websites and a simple VPN would be much safer. Incognito does nothing for security 

[BuckGup]

48 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I would recommend Opera. It contains a VPN based in Canada with the ability to use US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and, I think, Switzerland. 

 

Edit: Singapore, not Switzerland.

It's Switzerland for me

[BuckGup]

8 minutes ago, Implosivetech said:

Tor is a browser that has a built in VPN. For one that is much faster, use Opera.

 

http://www.opera.com/

Tor is not a VPN. Tor uses many separate nodes hoping back and forth encrypting and decrypting at each making it harder to trace back. 

[piemadd]

2 minutes ago, SamStrecker said:

Tor is not a VPN. Tor uses many separate nodes hoping back and forth encrypting and decrypting at each making it harder to trace back. 

wait, then why when i used tor a few times (couldn't find a vpn), i would be in france, or italy, or japan?

[KuJoe]

12 minutes ago, Implosivetech said:

wait, then why when i used tor a few times (couldn't find a vpn), i would be in france, or italy, or japan?

Because that's how TOR works. A VPN has a single exit point (VPN server) where as TOR will scramble your traffic across tens of different relay nodes before hitting a random exit node somewhere in the world.

 

EDIT: TOR is more of a proxy with privacy in mind, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) is supposed to be predictable with the traffic going exactly where it's supposed to go each time. VPNs are not designed for privacy, they are designed for security and to route data over remote connections (WAN) as if the client and network were on the same LAN.

[piemadd]

4 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Because that's how TOR works. A VPN has a single exit point (VPN server) where as TOR will scramble your traffic across tens of different relay nodes before hitting a random exit node somewhere in the world.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh i see.

[Azgoth 2]

Incognito mode is not private.  It doesn't save browsing history to your local machine, but nothing else changes--nothing that wouldn't normally be encrypted is encrypted, for instance.

 

Tor will provide a far greater level of anonymity than a VPN, but at the cost of some functionality you're used to.  E.g., you can't and shouldn't do really high-bandwidth stuff through Tor--doing a lot of streaming and really any torrenting can put a lot of stress on the network--and gaming will suffer from massive latencies.  The Tor Browser also doesn't let you save any data or settings between sessions, to minimize browser fingerprinting.  Oh, and some sites will just straight-up break if you're using Tor, because some sites just categorically reject Tor traffic.  (This is a fairly small number of sites, though).

 

VPNs are much more flexible in terms of bandwidth, but less gung-ho about anonymization.  They focus more on privacy, i.e., making sure your data is encrypted in transit.  Tor tries to hide who you are at all points along the way; VPNs essentially encrypt your data and relay it through another (often just one) server somewhere.  VPNs also usually cost money and are closed-source, so do your research before deciding on one.  The closed source thing means that you have to trust the company to not be misrepresenting their product (and when has a company ever done that?), and you have to rely on third-party whitepapers and recent security audits, which may not be available for all providers.  Also, don't bother with free VPNs.  You should always assume that if you're not paying for a service online, you're the product, not the customer, and your data is the real product (being sold to someone else).

 

There are some browser extensions you can use that don't require either Tor or a VPN, though--HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger (both by the Electronic Frontier Foundation), and uBlock Origin or Noscript (they do similar but slightly different things) are a pretty strong set.

 

But anyways, Tor is completely free, so there's no reason not to give it a shot and see if it's for you.  If not, you can look into a VPN service.

[Godlygamer23]

11 minutes ago, Azgoth 2 said:

But anyways, Tor is completely free, so there's no reason to give it a shot and see if it's for you.  If not, you can look into a VPN service.

I think you mean to say there's no reason NOT to give it a shot.

[LtStaffel]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Don't be so paranoid, especially if you're using a credit card. As long as you're not an idiot you'll be perfectly fine.

Not privacy wise...........

[LtStaffel]

19 minutes ago, Azgoth 2 said:

There are some browser extensions you can use that don't require either Tor or a VPN, though--HTTPS Everywhere, Privacy Badger (both by the Electronic Frontier Foundation), and uBlock Origin or Noscript (they do similar but slightly different things) are a pretty strong set.

Everyone should be running Ghostery, if not these.

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, LtStaffel said:

Not privacy wise...........

So your ISP knows what your credit card company knows? I don't see how that's an issue.