So my parents found out they could see my internet activity through the router. Can Tor hide it from the router? If not, is there anything that can?
All your router logs will show is encrypted connections to Tor guards. Local adversaries like parents will have no idea what you’re using Tor for. If they aren’t technically skilled, they won’t even know you’re using Tor.
I can answer this question, but I feel like you should go through the same trials young guys all have to and figure it out for yourself.
As you’ve described things, your parents are in effect your ISP, at least as far as what they can do from the router is concerned. If you read any Tor tutorial, anywhere it says “your ISP can do X”, you can read that as “your parents can do X at the router”.
If everything about you that you haven’t mentioned is typical, then in theory they can see that you are using Tor, but not what you are doing with it.
In practice, if they’ve just “found out” that they could monitor you through the router, they probably won’t know how to even detect Tor. The router probably won’t know what to make of Tor traffic at all. Even a simple VPN would probably be enough.
But of course I could be wrong. For all I know that router puts a big red banner on the login page if it ever sees any Tor traffic.
HOWEVER, even if you evade whatever snooping they do on the network equipment, there’s nothing to stop them from turning around and searching the computer you’re using, so you have to avoid leaving traces on the machine.
It might be enough just to use “private browsing” tabs in your browser, but that’s error prone, and anyway a lot of spyware marketed to parents would defeat it. They can absolutely buy software that will make a perfect record of everything you do and everything you type.
The tool most directly targeted to your use case is probably Tails. Normally I recommend Whonix because normally I think people care more about remote adversaries, but in your case you care about local adversaries, and Tails wins there.
I would not recommend Tails against anybody who really knew what they were doing. I also wouldn’t recommend it against anybody who was determined ehough, unless you could make sure that that person never got their hands on the hardware you used for it, even when Tails was not running. Hardware keyloggers will easily defeat Tails, and they’re not that hard to get.
Another thing that will defeat Tails is a camera in the room where you’re using it, by the way…
Now a warning: for any application more critical than hiding your porn browsing from your parents, DO NOT USE TOR UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND HOW THE NETWORK WORKS. Study how computers work, how operating systems work, how TCP/IP works, how the Internet fits together, and how Tor fits into that.
If you don’t know the difference between IP and TCP, or between Tor and the Tor Browser, or where and how a browser stores history information, or what the major parts of an operating system are, or dozens of other things along the same lines, then you will get nailed by anybody more skilled than J. Random Parent.
There is no substitute for understanding how it actually works. Do not follow “cookbooks”. Do not rely on advice from random people to “do X and you’ll be OK” or “do Y and you’ll be fine”. Do not assume that somebody knows what they’re talking about just because they can throw around words that confuse you. In fact, if they can’t explain themselves clearly, that’s a sign that they do not understand it. Furthermore, anybody willing to give you specific advice on anything important without asking a ton of probing questions first is probably a useless idiot.
A alternative browser you can find on the App Store paired with a vpn (virtual private network you can also find on the internet) will not leave any trace of your browsing habits. Or, if you’re hiding porn go to a tor browser on your phone after you’ve activated your VPN. And look on DuckDuckGo
Well, you could just ask your parents to give you a bit of privacy.
Tor can keep your history private; services like “hide.me” and “web archive” work too. I’m sure your ‘research’ will go unseen.
Yes it can obfuscate your traffic. Use a bridge if you are scared about network monitoring.
Tor browser is more than enough to hide your browser history from your parents.
To protect your search history specifically (from your parents), Tor is overkill. Virtually every search engine today is HTTPS by default. Using a private browsing window/incognito mode is all you would need.
If the domain of the site you are visiting is what you need to hide, that’s when you need Tor. HTTPS protects the specific page request but not “reddit.com” or “google.com” etc.
If i use bing on tor does it still work
Run a Virtual OS on your laptop and run TOR on that
No can you please help? I’ve been trying to figure this out for months.
Well, you could just ask
Your parents to give you a
Bit of privacy.
^- ^spark29
^^I’m ^^a ^^bot ^^made ^^by ^^/u/Eight1911. ^^I ^^detect ^^haiku.
Not necessary. Tor Browser is enough