How anonymous is TOR really?

[gollum]

I have the impression that TOR is not completely secure to keep you anonymous if you use the same session (IP) to visit several websitess since your IP-address will be saved in those websites logs.

Another scenario is Google & other big sites sharing data about their users with each other to get a better understanding of their registered and unregistered users. Even fragments of information can match with a real identity, for example the patterns of the languange used in your google searches, your blogs, tweets, emails, forum discussions (at bitcointalk) can easily be analyzed. Google has been indexing internet for years so they have all data they need. The more sources they got, the more accure they can match different mails, tweets and forum posts with each other, even if the IPs used are completely different (with help of TOR).

One solution for cautious people is of course to use encryption in all communication and never share data at public places (never writing posts at forums like this). I guess guys like Satoshi change their language pattern in forums and mails so they can remain anonymous.

[farlack]

You ever use tor, and check your ip address? It changes like every 3 seconds, and page change.

[gollum]

You ever use tor, and check your ip address? It changes like every 3 seconds, and page change.

Yes I know my IP changes regulary with TOR. The issue Im most concerned of is Big Brother identifiying you  regardless of what IP you are hiding behind, based on the traces you leave at different sites (based on your writing style and keywords or subjects in your texts).

[myrkul]

(based on your writing style and keywords or subjects in your texts).

Well, if you're worried about that, you're fucked anyway, unless you change your writing style deliberately.

[anti-scam]

Try using Anonymouth?

[mobile4ever]

You ever use tor, and check your ip address? It changes like every 3 seconds, and page change.

Yes I know my IP changes regulary with TOR. The issue Im most concerned of is Big Brother identifiying you  regardless of what IP you are hiding behind, based on the traces you leave at different sites (based on your writing style and keywords or subjects in your texts).

Have you seen this?

http://panopticlick.eff.org/index.php?action=log&js=yes

[johnniewalker]

If you download the browser bundle it comes with Vidalia, and you can just hit "Use New Identity" so I would say pretty damn anonymous. Do you think half of the hidden services that exist on tor would be permitted to if they weren't completely anonymous? 

[kodo]

As Anonymous as it gets.

[coin_toss]

If tor didn't work, the illegal sites on the darknet would have been shut down long ago. They have not been shut down (for the most part), so we know that it does work. Of course there's no silver bullet for anonymity. If you were doing something really shady, you would still need to alter your posting style and be careful which sites you access through tor in order to keep your identity properly a secret.

[wiggi]

Try using Anonymouth?

Interesting concept, but to be useful it needs to catch every unusual word, all grammatical mistakes,
basically need to understand natural language.

The other, simpler way would be: force the writer to use controlled/simplified natural language,
then apply synonyms and grammar reshuffling at random.
But AFAIK such a program doesn't exist.

[ondratra]

You ever use tor, and check your ip address? It changes like every 3 seconds, and page change.

it is not so often - I think i read about approximately few minutes - but you can change IP manually anytime

but there are also different issues (but I am not Tor expert to explain it)

[Matthew N. Wright]

For what it's worth, hackers who work for the government laugh at people who say TOR is secure and anonymous.

[nottm28]

This guy proved it was anonymous - the only way they caught him was due to his ego...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22248692

[crazylikeafox]

For what it's worth, hackers who work for the government laugh at people who say TOR is secure and anonymous.

Are you a hacker who works for the government?  How would you know this?  Are you laughing right now?

[Matthew N. Wright]

For what it's worth, hackers who work for the government laugh at people who say TOR is secure and anonymous.

Are you a hacker who works for the government?  How would you know this?  Are you laughing right now?

Are you a shill for CoinGator? How would you know they're not a scam? Are you laughing right now?

[bitpop]

You are supposed to disable plugins and javascript.. Or yes facebook and google will know exactly who you are

[ganabb]

Tor is not trustworthy, it is not safe to use for anything at all.

Many exit nodes are currently SSLstripped.

[MysteryMiner]

For what it's worth, hackers who work for the government laugh at people who say TOR is secure and anonymous.

Tor is as secure and anonymous as it can be. Reasons for this myth:

1. Hackers who work for government usually are total noobs and assholes. They get caught in first place before being "converted" to white hats. This fact alone speaks about their overall security proficiency.

2. Because they are such a lamers they cannot distinguish anonymity from security. They think that traffic being sniffable by exit node means "Tor is not anonymous".

3. They cannot do much about Tor being used for thing they cannot control. They spread FUD in hope that few will eat this bullshit.

[bitpop]

How exactly do they compromise your CA store?

Tor is not trustworthy, it is not safe to use for anything at all.

Many exit nodes are currently SSLstripped.

[MysteryMiner]

How exactly do they compromise your CA store?

Tor is not trustworthy, it is not safe to use for anything at all.

Many exit nodes are currently SSLstripped.

The do it with radio waves coming from black helicopters. They also disable bad node detection mechanism in Tor if the computer is not shielded with tin foil.

I welcome you to start modifying traffic going trough Your Tor exit node. Will see what happens. The conclusions from this experiment will make you feel a little bit better.