Now that we have the Tor browser installed and we learned how to connect to the Tor network even if
there is censorship.
In this lecture I want to show you how to configure it for maximum privacy, anonymity and security.
So first of all, as you can see, I am at the Tor project.org and it's telling me that I am connected
to the Tor network successfully.
It's shown me the IP that I appear to be using.
If I go ahead here beside the URL bar and click this icon, you will see that I'm going to get the Tor
circuit.
So this shows us the three nodes that the traffic is being bounced through before it goes to the website
that I am requesting.
So these are the nodes that I showed you earlier in here in this diagram.
And basically, as you can see, I'm requesting Tor Project.org, but instead of going to it directly,
I'm actually going to this node, then this node, then this node, and then finally landing to the
target website that I am requesting now, if for any reason you're not happy with the nodes that are
being used in here in this circuit, you can simply click on new circuit for this site.
One click in here will change the nodes.
As you can see, they changed very quickly and the website got reloaded.
So first of all, the nodes will be changed and then the Tor browser will request the website with the
new nodes that you just changed.
As a result, you will appear like a different device accessing the website.
If this isn't enough, if you want to completely change your identity, then you can actually go to
the options in here and instead of clicking on new Tor circuit.
So similar to the option that we saw earlier in here, you can click on new identity.
This option will completely erase the browsing data, close all of the tabs, restart the Tor browser,
and then you can load the website that you want with a completely fresh instance of the Tor browser
with new nodes as well.
Therefore appearing like a completely different person with a completely different identity and with
a completely different browser.
Now the icons in here, this icon display the security settings.
And we will talk about that in the next lecture.
And this icon right here will actually create a new identity.
Exactly like clicking on this option in here.
Now, let's go ahead to the settings.
I want to show you a few settings and make sure that your browser is configured this way.
So first of all, on the general page, we're going to simply just scroll down and make sure that your
browser is up to date.
Simply click on check for updates and make sure that it is up to date.
This is very important to make sure that you are using the latest most secure version of the browser.
Next, we're going to go to the privacy and security.
We're going to scroll down and you want to make sure that the history settings is set to always use
private browsing mode.
That basically means that no history is going to be used as you use the Tor browser, or alternatively
you can simply click on Never remember history.
Scrolling down.
We have the security settings in here, but I want to dedicate a full lecture to this, so we're going
to talk about it in the next lecture.
We're going to tick this box to block dangerous and deceptive content, and we're going to click the
next box in here to block dangerous downloads.
Now, the browser identifies deceptive content based on a public database.
Therefore, because we're going to be accessing websites on the dark web, some of these websites might
be categorized as deceptive.
So you might still get a warning for them and you're going to have to accept it yourself.
But I would rather tick this box and see the warning and decide for myself whether I want to access
this website or not, instead of these websites just loading for me automatically.
That's why we're taking this box.
So just keep it in mind.
You might still want to go ahead with websites that will be flagged as deceptive by the web browser.
Scrolling down, you want to make sure that the https only mode is set to this one so that HTTPS is
enforced on all of the websites that you are going to try to load in the future.
Last but not least, make sure that you don't use this browser window in full screen.
So never click on this button in here to maximize the window.
You can manually reduce or increase its size, but don't use this button to fully fold the screen.
This is important because if you have the browser in full screen, it can leak the type of monitor that
you are using.
And if you are using a laptop, then it can leak the type of laptop or at least narrow down the amount
of laptops that you might be using.
Therefore, for maximum privacy, anonymity and security, it is better to not use the browser in full
screen.