We all know that Big Brother is watching, but he doesn’t need to know what websites you’ve been visiting! Using Privoxy, a web proxy program, Tor, a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, and a firefox plugin called TorButton, you can browse the web in anonymous safety. Here is some an explanation of the technology from the Tor website:

Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

Please note: Because your communications are bounced around a global network, your surfing will take a slight performance hit. Because of this we are using TorButton to enable us to quickly turn this feature on and off.

Installation

First let’s install Tor and Privoxy (Ensure the restricted repositories are enabled)

Next, we need to configure Privoxy. Open /etc/privoxy/config in your favourite text editor.

We need to find this line: listen-address localhost:8118
In my config file it was line number 741.

Beneath this we need to add the following text (including the period):

forward-socks4a / localhost:9050 .

Your config file should look like this…

/etc/privoxy/config

Save and exit.

Now we need to restart Tor and Privoxy

Now we need to start firefox and install the TorButton plugin.

Navigate firefox to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2275 and click ‘Add to Firefox’

Restart firefox.

In the bottom right hand corner of firefox you will now have a button titles ‘Tor Disabled’, this can be clicked to enable and disable Tor. You can test your new found anonymity by visiting http://ip-address.domaintools.com/ (see screenshots below).

Tor Disabled

Tor Disabled

Tor Enabled

Tor Enabled

Happy anonymous surfing!