The Internet is a veritable cornucopia for data collectors of all kinds. Secret service agencies, marketing agencies, and criminals are lying in wait to gather up and abuse the personal data of unsuspecting surfers. In many cases, it is the browser, or the add-ons used by the browser, that provide access by data spies who, through the application of sophisticated website programming techniques, invade and diminish the personal privacy of others.

The standard settings for the typical web browser without protective extensions leave the user wide open to real risks. Surfing habits can be captured and identified. The user is vulnerable to malware attacks. Manually harden the software thus makes sense, but this process requires experience with techniques for guarding against cyberattacks. The Tor browser offers a much simpler solution for users wanting to block snooping and overzealous data collection.

How It Works

The Tor bundle combines several reliable technologies from open source software, thereby achieving a very high level of security. The Tor network and the Firefox web browser function as the central components of the bundle. The Tor team has enriched Firefox with several preconfigured add-ons and then configured the browser so that it searches for access to the Internet exclusively via onion routing. You could manually install both components but that would take a lot of configuration work. Therefore, the Tor browser package is ideally suited for the security-minded user lacking subject matter expertise in cybersecurity and data privacy.

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