How To Browse The Web From Your iPhone So No One Can See What You're Doing

Snowden, NSA, privacy, domestic surveillance, all of it. The head spins.

If you want to stay private, and make these concerns a non-issue, you should use Mike Tigas's Onion Browser.

It's an iPhone and iPad app that lets your device connect to the Tor network, which reroutes your web traffic through various servers before ultimately landing on your screen. You stay completely anonymized.

Onion Browser is simply a mobile browser that knows how to navigate all this rerouting, getting at this is a layer of the Internet that conventional browsers like Chrome and Firefox can't access.

If you want to take advantage of Tor on your phone, you'll need this app. It gets your phone connected to the same secure, anonymous network. Your browsing habits aren't recorded and you remain unidentifiable.

• Tap the icon to start the app.

• It will start to connect to the Tor network.

• This process will take several seconds as it runs through its routine.

• And here we are at Onion Browser's homepage.

• By navigating to check.torproject.com, we can confirm that everything's working smoothly.

• We can anonymously browse the "clearweb."

• Or delve into the "Deep Web," those sites that exist outside the purview of Google and Facebook. Here's the login page for the famous Silk Road.

• We can confirm our anonymity by checking available data on our reassigned IP address.

• By plugging it into a database, we see that there are no identifying details to give us away.

• Tapping "New Identity" will give you a fresh anonymous start. You otherwise have similar browser functionality with bookmarks, etc.

• It comes pre-loaded with a few security-related bookmarks.

• And farther down the bookmark list, the app includes some Tor sites too.

• You can set your preferences on what to do with cookies – if you're privacy-obsessed, you'll probably want to block all of them.

• Using Tor to shop securely?

Rodrigo Arangua/AFP

Data source: via BI (By Dylan Love)

To review and download Onion Browser on the App Store click here.

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 5.1 or later.

$0.99
Category: Utilities
Updated: Jul 03, 2013
Version: 1.3.7
Size: 6.5 MB