Do you want to surf anonymously using TOR on Android? Yes, You can do it!
When visiting websites, more and more data is collected about our identity and our network habits. Even from smartphones we are now perpetually tracked and profiled.
If you want to cut all the information collected on your account and/or you want to surf anonymously on some inaccessible sites or blocked in your country we can rely on Tor and Firefox, also available as an app on Android.
In this guide, we will see how to configure the two free apps to use TOR on Android.
TOR on Android
Orbot: Proxy with Tor
The first app to install on our device is Orbot, which will allow you to set up a proxy connected to the TOR network to use TOR on Android.
The app is free and open source. We can download it from the following link.
DOWNLOAD | Orbot
Once installed, just hold down on the onion that will appear in the app interface. After a few minutes, we will be connected to the TOR network on Android.
The app will set a proxy on Android reachable through a particular port. The app will be set to auto-start and will bounce our connection between multiple nodes of the network, making it untraceable. In the notification screen, we can see the number of rebounds in the TOR network on Android made by the app.
We can get a new IP address automatically or choose which IP address to get. Just choose from the side menu of the app in which country we want to show.
Trying to navigate with any browser already present in the device we may not be really connected, so to browse anonymous exploiting TOR on Android we will use a dedicated browser.
Orfox: Firefox modified to make the most of Tor
Orfox is a modified version of Firefox already preconfigured to exploit TOR on Android via Orbot. Just leave the latter started and download the browser to browse anonymously from the Play Store.
DOWNLOAD | Orfox
Based on the source code of TOR Browser and Firefox, Orbot brings the best of the two anonymous browsers on mobile devices! In addition to anonymous browsing, it also integrates NoScript and HTTPS Everywhere, two very useful extensions to increase the security of navigation.
Once you open the Orfox browser we can use the verification page to check if we are under TOR network on Android.
Now we can really browse anonymously using TOR on Android. As a search browser, I recommend DuckDuckGo, the only search engine that does not track users (and in our case, even if it did, it would track only an anonymous user under the TOR network).
LINK | DuckDuckGo
PC alternatives
We can also use TOR to surf anonymously from a computer using TOR Browser, which we talked about in our previous guide.
In addition, to “shield” our connection completely we can also rely on a VPN: you will find all the explanations of the case and a list of the most reliable in our dedicated guide.