How anonymous is TOR really?

[gollum]

If used correctly it can be pretty good, but if you use it incorrectly then there really is no point is it?

You should check tor's guides, they are pretty in-depth and will help you getting started.

Sadly, such complexity only shrugs off non techies as they like most stuff easy to use, very quick and easy to learn and conveniant.

What our noob friends need is a black-box solution: a cheap small wifi-router with upgradeable software where you have three modes:
-VPN mode
-TOR mode
-Default mode (just as all other routers)

As I said before I dont trust TOR fully (some endpoints of TOR is run by criminals, and some are run by NSA), but it is somehow better than revealing ones real IP.

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[bitbybit2]

Let's just say that if Tor is not anonymous then nobody would bother to buy illegal stuff in silk road.
Once they visit the deep web/invisible web/dark net/onionland without using the Tor bundle they should expect Law Enforcers to bang at their door at any given moment. TOR is anonymous but purchasing a vpn software using your credit card will definitely tie your name to the VPN software. So don't be stupid do not purchase a vpn software using your money. Use free VPN software or better yet use only those that accept bitcoins.

[AliceWonder]

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

But your session ID won't.

[gollum]

Is this solution too paranoid?

1. You connect to internet via VPN on the router
2. You run one VM (virtual machine) with linux & TOR for each web-page. So you have one VM for Bitcointalk, one VM for google and so on...
3. You delete your VMs every night and use a fresh VM for every new session so you can be 100% sure you dont have any trojans, cookies and other parasites.

[bitpop]

Your tor server should have its own vm.

[ebildude123]

Pretty anonymous I would say, I recommend you don't host a tor node on your personal computer though 

[moni3z]

They (feds) have only ever caught people using Tor who talked to much in IRC/forums. So if you aren't telling the feds where you live and everything about yourself while you engage in freedom fighting activities then you are basically as anonymous as it gets.

Although unlikely, it could be possible for an ISP to scan looking for Tor connections. China does this, but they don't dispatch black helicopters they just shut the connection down. So if you are worried about this obviously you would want to tunnel Tor through a VPN, or use Obfsproxy to hide the Tor connection from your ISP.

It could also be possible they trap you in some sort of page full of browser exploits and then learn what your real IP is, though unlikely if java plugins are all removed and you aren't randomly going to suspicious pages people have emailed or linked you in IRC. If you are worried run it in a vm, or even better use virtual routing in openbsd to lock down the Tor daemon to local IP, chroot it, and set up your firewall to deny all outbound connections that aren't through Tor and these exploits are foiled.

Feds found out who China's l337 haxors were because they were dumb enough to log into facebook while hacking the gibson and the NSA got their cookies and found their real names. So, if these idiots are the super dangerous government hackers you are worried about sounds like they have no idea what they are doing and no chance at all tracing their own hand on a piece of paper let alone some sort of hollywood-esque backtrack through Tor hops to find you.

[Lionel]

They (feds) have only ever caught people using Tor who talked to much in IRC/forums. So if you aren't telling the feds where you live and everything about yourself while you engage in freedom fighting activities then you are basically as anonymous as it gets.

Although unlikely, it could be possible for an ISP to scan looking for Tor connections. China does this, but they don't dispatch black helicopters they just shut the connection down. So if you are worried about this obviously you would want to tunnel Tor through a VPN, or use Obfsproxy to hide the Tor connection from your ISP.

It could also be possible they trap you in some sort of page full of browser exploits and then learn what your real IP is, though unlikely if java plugins are all removed and you aren't randomly going to suspicious pages people have emailed or linked you in IRC. If you are worried run it in a vm, or even better use virtual routing in openbsd to lock down the Tor daemon to local IP, chroot it, and set up your firewall to deny all outbound connections that aren't through Tor and these exploits are foiled.

Feds found out who China's l337 haxors were because they were dumb enough to log into facebook while hacking the gibson and the NSA got their cookies and found their real names. So, if these idiots are the super dangerous government hackers you are worried about sounds like they have no idea what they are doing and no chance at all tracing their own hand on a piece of paper let alone some sort of hollywood-esque backtrack through Tor hops to find you.

Did they login to FB from TOR or did they use a separate non-TOR browser for that ?

[raatnak]

He is pretty good at anonymity if you know how to use it.

[Artemis3]

If you are truly paranoid, stick to "hidden services" (.onion addresses) and avoid the normal web (no exit nodes), use the Tor Browser from a live linux like Tails. The rest depends on your attitude, as mentioned earlier some people can't control their ego...

Tor is vital in oppressive regimes. People living nice countries only think about doing "bad" things, but under oppressive regimes a "bad thing" might mean reading an article from a "banned" media outlet or buying bitcoin. There is people who can get imprisoned years without seeing any lawyer or family only for expressing their political opposition on social media against the regime they live under.

Of course the original intention was protecting navy operatives passing Intel while remaining undetected behind enemy lines. It HAS to be anonymous enough, as there are people lives at risk here. But not everyone knows how to use it properly as that requires a strict discipline.

[LUCKMCFLY]

It may not be totally secure, so it should be done with other add-ons, if you have VPN it is an ideal way for the IP that generates TOR to have its completion in the same cloud, that way it is much easier to have more anonymity. Also protect yourself with a virtual machine, so you will have fewer vulnerability options.

[bitcoin-shark]

tor in itself is not completely anonymous but combined with other small tricks you can get good results, for example a vpn paid in crypto (monero) then firefox with tor and a public wi-fi without password, and eventually obscure the mac address of the pc /mobile phone...

[LUCKMCFLY]

I got a way that Tor is totally anonymous, if you use tor and link it with operamini through an add-on, you will not only use the multiple IP that Tor
 can handle, if you activate the VPN option in Operamini you can have anonymity assured, and if You do some
 virtual machine, I think it will be more impossible to trace.

[flash101k]

Actually, TOR helps you anonymously through many different workstations. But with genius hackers, you always leave personal information even when using TOR.