force, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

Really the only reason to use Tor is if you really need a certain type of privacy, or to bypass certain restrictions on websites. It’s definitely not something to use as a daily driver, it can be cumbersome and using it incorrectly puts you at risk.

It doesn’t have a lot of features that normal browsers use – it doesn’t save history, some sites don’t work on Tor because it does a lot of fancy stuff like blocking trackers. You shouldn’t use extensions on Tor either, that can get you deanonymised.

It also doesn’t guarantee a lot of protection against malicious actors on the web. You still have to be as cautious about what websites you use as you would on any other browser.

You also can’t really do things that demand a lot of bandwith like downloading large files on Tor – speeds are extremely slow due to all of the privacy measures they take, and it causes a LOT of strain on Tor nodes and makes the experience worse for everyone. If you’re pirating/torrenting, just use a VPN.

You shouldn’t do anything on Tor that exposes personal/sensitive information, including logging onto websites with your personal accounts, that defeats almost the entire purpose of using it for the average user (anonymity) and can actually put you at risk.

Especially don’t do anything like online banking or shopping on Tor. It’s not suitable for secure online transactions.

Basically only use it for stuff that DOESN’T require personal/sensitive/identifying info, and stuff that DOESN’T use up a lot of bandwidth.

Honestly for the average person, Tor is completely useless. Most should only use it if they know there’s something they may need to hide from a government/ISP/etc. Otherwise just Firefox with some extensions and changed settings will do.