How to be anonymous on the web? Tor, Dark net, Whonix, Tails, Linux

during your regular browsing session there are anywhere between two to three thousand third-party trackers trying to snatch your data or attack your device with malware you are being tracked by companies even if you have never signed up for their services that includes google facebook microsoft or verizon that spend millions of dollars annually to keep outdated privacy laws broken the problem isn't just that your every click and keystroke are closely monitored but they are also stored copied and sold thousands of times around the world profiling you with biases and algorithms you have no control over you don't even need to be signed into your account and can use a private mode on your browser with a vpn and you will still be easily identified and tracked the problem with virtual private networks is that your vpn provider knows exactly the same information about you that your isp does vpns only change your ip address and make it difficult for your isp to see and control your traffic vpns are useful to bypass censorship geoblocking or throttling by your isp but they don't give you any anonymity whatsoever despite the marketing of most vpn providers modern trackers don't even need to know your ip address to track you and know your identity if you are not concerned about online privacy you need to look no further than china to see the dystopian reality of the internet without privacy the chinese government tightly cooperates with tech corporations including google to build tools that track everybody's online activities the government then uses the data to give people social score and rank them accordingly people have no control over their social score yet they often result in individuals being banned from traveling shopping or engaging in social activities it's only a matter of short time before these tools start being implemented in the west too they are after all partly developed by western corporations but before it happens you can sufficiently protect yourself from the future if you can learn how to be anonymous on the web today in this tutorial you will learn what it means to be anonymous on the web how to use essential anonymity tools and you'll learn some tips and habits to help you protect your online anonymity even better online anonymity is not something that just for criminals or persecuted individuals it's important if you don't want a record of your interests preferences searches emails messages contacts browsing history and social media activity stored indefinitely on remote data centers being anonymous is not the same as being private you can have a private conversation with your friend but you are not anonymous if you are using your real world identities on the contrary you can post a comment on a public forum that everybody can read without leaving any traits about your identity in a sense online anonymity gives you the highest level of privacy protection on the internet most privacy tools are focused on encryption which is great but encryption only protects the content but in modern surveillance it's the metadata that's most valuable the former nsa chief once had something to say about this david's description of what you can do with metadata and quoting a mutual friend stuart baker is absolutely correct okay we kill people based on metadata metadata is who you talk to when where for how long how often on what device and software today you will learn how to be completely anonymous on the web leaving no trace about your presence you'll be introduced to new tools and you'll learn some essential habits so that you use these tools correctly [Music] we are going to start with tor browser straight ahead it's pointless to try to be anonymous with your regular connection you need a verifiably untraceable system where nobody knows who you are that's where tor comes in tor is an overlay network that runs on the regular internet the goal of the tor network is to make it impossible to trace traffic back to its origin it achieves this by encrypting and rerouting your traffic through three independent tor relays or hops none of the relays knows the full length of the tor traffic so there is no single point of failure these relays are run by volunteers from all around the world and tor browser chooses and arranges them randomly and frequently on average every 10 minutes or each time you restart tor browser you get a new set of relays giving you a completely new identity tor browser is the easiest tool to get access to the tor network you can download it for your operating system from torproject.org browser doesn't need to be installed in our system so we can easily store the file on a usb drive and run it anywhere tor gives you access to dark net through onion websites onions simply because onions have layers and tor network has three layers of encryption one for each hawk onion addresses look very different from regular clear net addresses but they offer full tor network encryption and anonymity onion addresses are becoming increasingly more popular and they are offered by dug that go protonmail or even facebook yes facebook facebook has an onion address to bypass nationwide firewalls like in china but it's still the same facebook monster so don't expect any privacy or anonymity just because they use tor you can also use tor to access clearnet websites tor browser has some additional privacy features and tools built in to keep you protected even on clear net websites perhaps the most significant tool is no script noscript is a security add-on that blocks execution of javascript by your browser i have a full dedicated tutorial on noscript that i recommend to watch but here i'll mention some basic functionality by default tor browser doesn't block javascript but you can change it and it is highly recommended that you do click on the onion icon and open security settings you have three options standard safer and the safest in standard all scripts are allowed in the safer mode only unencrypted scripts are blocked and media is click to play and in the safest mode all javascript is blocked if you want to be serious about anonymity you go for the safest option but this will break a lot of websites which means you might not be able to use them when you open nosecrate minion you will have an option to allow execution of javascript for specific domains click on trusted or temporarily trusted the only difference between these two is that temporarily trusted will be reset after you restart the browser but at the time of making this video tor browser doesn't save trusted domains either but if an update comes you'll know what the difference is most websites run more than one script sometimes it's enough to just allow the first domain but in other cases you might need more if you are in a hurry click on set all on this page to temporarily trust it this will allow all domains that are currently visible if you are really in a hurry you can also disable restrictions for the current tab but this will strip you from the protections of noscript to use tor browser properly there are some habits you should learn don't sign in to online accounts on tor especially facebook google or social media in general you are not anonymous just for being on the tor network if you give someone your name it doesn't matter how much you are blocking trackers and hiding your ip address all online accounts can be used to track you so make sure you serve on tor signed off don't change any settings on the tor browser except for the security settings don't install any plugins add-ins or themes the whole point of the tor browser is to make it look like everyone else if you make changes to how you look you're making yourself stand out use only the default tor browser to connect the tor network brave for example recently implemented an option to open new tabs in tor but this is completely pointless you're only giving yourself a unique fingerprint on the tor network and making it easier to track you never go full screen preferably leave the size in its default but if you have to adjust it manually if you need to write an anonymous blog post or comment don't type inside the website write your text in a text editor and then copy paste it into the website many scripts can track your keystrokes and identify you in a similar way you can be identified through the way you walk also change your writing style and speech as much as possible less than 500 words of a text written by you can lead to your identity [Music] for browser is only as secure as the operating system you are running it on which is not very secure this is why we need to build an impenetrable wall around your browser that eliminates the attack surface to an absolute minimum this is where hunix is doing a great job hunix is a linux based operating system made to run inside a virtual machine that means you can still keep your host system and run linux inside it the whole operating system of linux is routed through tor every application you run inside it will be connected to the tor network by default linux is another security layer on top of the tor browser that protects your main system in case a tracker or a malware escapes tor browser it'll still be trapped inside the tor network on your hunix machine and will not get access to your main system or your real ip address if you have never tried a virtual machine or a linux operating system this tip might look more intimidating than it really is but trust me it's very simple and totally worth it all you need to do is to just follow the instructions on the screen to get unix you need to download two files or images for your operating system honig's gateway and linux workstation gateway is what configures the whole machine to route all traffic through the tor network and workstation is where you really operate as a user for security purposes it is highly recommended to verify the downloads this process is different on each operating system but it is fairly simple to just follow the instructions if you are a windows user this might be something new because windows never verifies anything you want to install on your computer verification is to make sure you are downloading a legitimate file from the author and not a fake duplicate for your virtual machine software virtualbox from oracle is recommended to install linux open virtualbox and click on file from the menu choose import appliance navigate to the honig's gateway image and click next as it usually goes for towards software don't change any settings and just press import agree and wait for the process to complete repeat the process for the hunix workstation to start linux just select honig's gateway first and press start or just double click and then do the same for the hunix workstation always start gateway first and workstation second you can also make desktop shortcuts to run the vms from your desktop alternatively you can follow the installation instructions provided in the documentation it's very straightforward and you can't go wrong with this don't use gateway for any web activity all of that belongs to the workstation you have to run both gateway and workstation every time which rarely interact with gateway make sure you run system check on both gateway and workstation on regular basis keep your system up to date open the terminal and type in sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-gate dist upgrade default username is user and password is change me so you're going to have to change that open the terminal type in sudo su and enter the default change me password type in pass wd hit enter and type in a new administrator password after that type in passwd user to change your user password make sure you read some linux guides and security documentation for first time users to get a grasp on operation security having the right tools is only half of the success you need to be aware of what to do and what not to do to make sure you don't compromise yourself other than that linux is just like any other linux distribution you can customize it use it daily and you can even install multiple linux machines to compartmentalize your web activities you can shut down the vms through the system or you can also close the vm window try to play around with this software before you commit yourself to it fully try out different view options and maybe even consider multitasking with it linux is something that will be in your way for a while but it is a habit and just like with anything it will become seamless after a while your biggest vulnerability now is in the operating system your linux machine is hosted on your host operating system can monitor everything you do inside a virtual machine this is where you should start migrating from windows and mac os to linux linux distributions that are both secure and user-friendly are pureless and risquel pureos comes with some privacy and security software pre-installed and has a very modern look and feel if you want something that's the easiest to transition to you can try linux mint cinnamon most linux distributions are easy to install even easier than installing windows you just need to create a live usb with your chosen linux distro and boot it from your device there are tons of tutorials on youtube going step by step on how to install different linux distributions linux is generally very user friendly and for average users it runs everything you need i use linux as my only driver and i am perfectly capable of using professional software for editing and open source software for scripting graphics and audio more and more games are being ported to linux and the sooner you give it a try the better for yourself and the whole internet ecosystem the more people use linux the more diverse and the more secure the whole network becomes linux is very resistant to malware and vulnerabilities and is generally more stable than windows using windows and macos is not secure because these platforms are not transparent about what they can and can't do with your data you're not in full control of your device if you run either of the operating systems and you can never trust their security and privacy layouts because both pure os and triskal are free and open source software you are always in full control of your machine and have absolute freedom over what you can do with it if you tweak some settings on linux you can rest assured they will remain that way and they won't be reset remotely by a company there are no forced updates and you are not locked down to just a small selection of corporate software and just so that we don't forget both apple and microsoft have been secret nsa partners for years and they have built in backdoors into their systems for undisclosed amount of government agencies what goes for desktop also goes for mobile whether it's ios or android both mobile osas are tied to your identity and track your data not even ios is so privacy-minded as they would have you believe for example it was iphone under steve jobs that started the invasive location tracking and google started doing it only years later this is why it is so important to be in full control of your software the best mobile os alternative currently out there is a lineage os lineage os can be installed on almost every android device and it runs android apps out of the box what's best about the lineage os is that you can run it without any google apps installed giving yourself complete control over who gets access to your data to replace play store you can install f droid which is a mobile repository for free and open source apps many of them offering you great privacy and security enhancing features lineage os of course isn't anonymous on his own but you can run tor on your phone too for that you need orbot to configure your device to connect to the tor network and you can use orfox as a mobile version of tor browser bundle orbot is also available on google play and app store if you are not ready to commit yourself to a new operating system in your quest to become more anonymous there are going to be cases when you want to leave in no trace of your presence on a device [Music] meet tails tails is a live operating system that runs on bare metal that is you boot to tails directly from a usb drive on a machine without the presence of the host operating system tails leaves no trace on the device and all traffic is routed through the tor network the installation process is even simpler than that of hunix just download tail's image and use tails verification extension to verify the file if it passes install tails installer for the operating system you will be installing it from plug in your usb device and follow the installation instructions for your system this process is very simplistic so far the next step is now to boot tails from the usb to do that you need to access boot options menu on your computer which is going to be different from device to device check your manual if you are not sure but generally it revolves around pressing f2 f12 escape or delete keys or their combination with the shift key upon boot up once you are in the boot menu you need to select your usb drive and reboot from it everything beyond that is just a matter of following on screen instructions tails has a lot of use cases especially if you are using devices that you don't own like in a library or at your friends tails gives you an option to create a persistent encrypted storage which is going to securely store files on the remaining space on the usb drive bear in mind though that this encrypted storage is not hidden which means if somebody obtains physical access to your usb drive they will be able to see there is a tails persistent storage they will not be able to decrypt your files but this is a problem if you can be compelled to disclose the decryption key either by law or by force some countries like the uk australia or canada have key disclosure laws which means you may go to prison for refusing to hand over your passwords the fifth amendment offers some protection in the us but there have been cases when the court ordered key disclosure in the past tails is also capable of running inside a virtual machine much like unix but running tails on a bare device eliminates the attack surface of your host machine of your host operating system so when you run tails as a guest you open up yourself to the vulnerabilities of your main operating system the final step to take control of anonymity on the web is to use cube's os the most robust and still usable security focused operating system in existence os offers security by compartmentalization that means you run each application on cubes in a secure virtual machine that has very limited connections with your device this allows you to create and run the same software inside virtual machines or compartments with different security measures unfortunately cubes is very resource hungry and is beyond the scopes of this tutorial cube's security is even recommended by edward snowden but it is not so easy to use as other security tools presented in this tutorial let's summarize this online anonymity tutorial step by step we learned that privacy is not the same as anonymity and that being anonymous online gives you the highest level of privacy protections if you are anonymous on a public place like the internet network no one can attribute your actions to your identity we started our journey to become anonymous through tor browser we've learned to use the tor network to hide our browsing record we learned that we can't use online accounts and expect the same level of anonymity we compartmentalized our browsing thanks to hunix inside a virtual machine because crack trackers can escape even tor browser we created a whole new environment for our anonymous presence on the web we changed our main operating systems to free and open source alternatives like pure os on desktop and lineage os on mobile devices mainstream operating systems can't be trusted because they can monitor our activities even inside virtual machines for ultimate anonymity we discovered how to run tails as a live operating system eliminating the attack surface to an absolute minimum we also explored cube's os that can help us compartmentalize all of our activities in the online world with maximum security as a final advice make sure you know what software you are running for different online activities if you want anonymous chat try out ricochet or off the record pidgin to eliminate your data footprint switch to free and open source alternatives whenever you can use libreoffice instead of microsoft office signal instead of whatsapp nextcloud for cloud storage and syncing more tools can be found on privacytools.io or just ask for alternatives at privacy and privacy tools io subreddits online anonymity requires eternal vigilance but it is not something that will take up chunk of your time it's mostly just a matter of getting used to new habits so i hope this tutorial helped you and if it did please leave a like and subscribe if you are new to this channel comment down below if you have any questions or suggestions about anything that has been said during this video thank you for watching

Channel: The Hated One

Views: 1,478,134

Rating: 4.9414592 out of 5

Keywords: How to be anonymous on the web, Online anonymity tutorial, how to be anonymous, how to be anonymous online, anonymous online, online anonymity, how to become anonymous, anonymity tutorial, guide to online anonymity, tor, dark net, anonymous tor, tor browser tutorial, whonix tutorial, tails tutorial, become anonymous, be anonymous, linux, anonymous linux, pureos, how to be anonymous on the internet, how to be anonymous on android, how to use tor, how to install Whonix, whonix

Id: _393maHbHWc

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/DeadDog818]

fantastic video.

Just a note that this is not just for people who live under oppressive regimes like China - This is also good for people who may find their regime becoming more oppressive (e.g. Hungary).

If you live in a country that does not have these immediate worries you should still follow this advice as it will mix your activity up with people who do need to hide their identity and make it harder for the police states to trace.

[u/[deleted]]

You should also check privacytools.io