Tor / Tor Browser

Tor
Tor Browser

Tor really deserves a much deeper discussion all on it's own.  While this will be a brief mention of the tool, maybe I can revisit it later.

TOR, The Onion Router, is a software package that when configured properly tunnels your network traffic through an encrypted service to maintain a level of privacy and anonymity.  With that said it is important to note that many security researchers argue that Tor is broken.  If you control an exit node you can eventually identify a user to a given set of traffic.  It is the nature of the beast and simply requires that you learn and used trusted exit nodes.  In the mean time, it is good enough for what most folks are looking for.

While Tor can require some configuration on the user's part it is relatively easy to use and set up.

Part of why I mention Tor now, is because we have been talking about browsers.  The folks over at the Tor Project have wonderfully bundled a FireFox browser along with Tor in an even easier to use package.  Download it, uncompress it, double-click it, and you are set for any traffic initiated with that browser.  This is truly the easiest way to get your feet wet with Tor and expand into a whole new knowledge set of privacy, encryption, proxies, and tunnels.

One word of note, some sites will actively block communications from Tor nodes, so you may run into issues connecting to some services like gmail.  Also be aware that any extensions or add-ons that you install to your Tor-ified browser may weaken the level of privacy and anonymity provided by Tor.  For example your browser is secure, and Tor is secure, but you installed Flash to play that puzzle game, and Flash has collected and shared bits of data with some other service.  Or while the browser has deleted its cache, the flash install still has all of its cached data which could be used to reveal which sites you visited.

Tor like some many other applications is just a tool, a layer in your over all security posture.  It by itself will not guarantee 100% privacy.

Grab Tor Browser and start experiencing a new way to visit the web.

Tor Browser
Tor

Mozilla Collusion

Mozilla Collusion

Let us shift gears slightly and discuss where you are at, where you are going, where you think you are...

Collusion is a wonderful little add-on for your browser, available for FireFox and Chrome.  It give you a visual display of what sites interact with each other.  So you go to mail.yahoo.com and you think you are only sharing data with Yahoo.  Think again.

While Collusion in FireFox will only show you where you are going.  Collusion in Chrome will also block access to known tracking sites.

See the Ted Talk describing Collusion.

Use Collusion to get a better idea of where your information is going.  Learn to control your data and opt-out of the tracking services that you can legitimately opt-out of.  Learn to prevent the tracking and data sharing that you cannot opt-out of.

Another fine tracking blocker is Ghostery
Ghostery currently blocks over 1550 elements, with new elements being added frequently.

Mozilla Collusion