14. Anonymity basics: TOR

TOR is a network.

There are at least 3 nodes between you and your destination.

You - entry node - middle node - exit node - (any other proxy) -destination

You know the order of all nodes and their IPs.

The entry node knows your IP but does not know what address you access and what you send.
Middle node does not know your IP and does not know what address you acces and what you send.
Exit node does not know your IP and does not know the IP of your entry node, does not know what you send but knows the destnation.

You can ask the TOR network to give you a "bridge" if TOR is banned in your country. TOR nodes are public knowledge, but bridges not necessarily. Bridge is essentially an entry node that is not listed so that your country cannot ban it. Once you are connected to the entry node - the entry node will make connection with a middle node - and middle node with the end node and therefore bridge is sufficient for a proper TOR connection.

This makes it a decent anonymity tool fit for almost all tasks.

This is the TOR website: https://www.torproject.org/
You can learn more and check download options here.

You can install TOR as a protocol too, and you can set your proxy settings so that particular applications or all of then must get routed through TOR for maximum anonymity. Remember that the TOR browser only forces the data inside the browser to go through the TOR network - anything else goes through your regular IP! Do not forget it.

In Linux you can get "torsocks" and it is a quick tool to open any application and route its traffic through the TOR network. You can use that if it is a basic use one-time task. If you use things more regularly consider automating in proxy configs.

When you connect to .onion sites it is essentially the same: you - three nodes of yours - three nodes of theirs - and destination.
Destination cannot see your exit node! Exit nodes can only see other exit nodes! That is even more anonymous!

The .onion addresses are essentially public keys! It is almost infinitely unlikey that they roll the same keys to pretend to be the site they claim to be. Since they are keys you can generate for free - your .onion domains are also free of charge! Very secure. I use TOR for anything, it is now faster than ever.

Remember to set settings to "safest" when you use the TOR browser, keep using the default NoJS extension at all times, do not install anything customized to it (because it will be listed when you connect to onion sites and will fingerprint you).

Refuse to use websites that require you to enable java script unless you are absolutely sure that it is safe (like innocent clearnet sites). Otherwise do not allow java script - instant fingerprint.

TOR browser is quite easy once you play around with it for 5 minutes.