After all, everyone and their mother knows you fancy the cute barista at Joe’s Coffee since you’ve confessed your undying love of their ability to serve you a mocha with perfect latte art every time, you snob. I realize this might not seem like a big problem to most people. But if you’re using a Wi-Fi hotspot at a cafÃ©, why should everyone at the cafÃ©, the cafÃ©’s owners, and the cafÃ©’s ISP know that you’re checking your email? Moreover, why should your email provider know that you’re at that specific Joe’s Coffee on the corner? Naturally, some of these are necessary to complete your tasks, like logging into your email account to read your messages. :) Why use Tor?Įvery time you turn on your computer, you’re sending all kinds of signals to all kinds of people and companies about who and where you are, and what you’re doing. So I thought I’d do what I can to demystify Tor and encourage you to use it, even if you’re a muggle rather than a technomage. Tor is simple to set up, very strong, and woefully underutilized by “ normal people.” And it turns out that its reputation as a piece of black magic is largely undeserved. Using a tool like Tor can help you obscure details about who you are and what you’re doing from an Internet Service Provider (ISP), company network filter, or other entities. Tor is a best-in-class, free, open source anonymizing network proxy. For the full belt and suspenders, I also started making much heavier use than I’d previously been doing of privacy-enhancing services like Tor: The Onion Router. For instance, I started “checking in” to venues on Foursquare as I left rather than as I arrived. This prompted several changes in my behavior in order to protect myself.

It had already gotten to the point where I was being harassed by a self-described “Internet stalker” who would call up venues I went to and get the employees to find me and give me the phone.

Recently, I had the gratifying experience of doing some political work that earned me a bunch of hate mail and some threats of physical violence.

Tor browser for mac