NOTE: This article is not about any of the "normal" topics of this newsletter: genealogy, history, current affairs, DNA, and related topics. However, it is about a method of insuring your online privacy.

You say you don't mind if Google, Facebook, tour internet service provider (ISP), and dozens of other online services spy on everything you do online? If so, you might skip this article.

However, I will suggest that anyone who is concerned about online spying should read this article.

From an article by icon Thomas Claburn published in TheRegister web site:

The Tor Browser, which strives to provide anonymity online rather than the limited data sharing internet companies call "privacy," has reached version 12.5, a milestone that brings usability and accessibility improvements alongside attention to legacy issues.

The name Tor stands for "The Onion Router" and refers to a method of network communication developed back in 2002 that uses encryption and multiple relay nodes in an effort to keep the user anonymous.

"The aim of Tor is to improve your privacy by sending your traffic through a series of proxies," the Tor Project explains on its website. "Your communication is encrypted in multiple layers and routed via multiple hops through the Tor network to the final receiver."

The Tor Browser, based on the Extended Support Release of Mozilla's Firefox, provides a way to connect to the Tor network. It makes an effort to provide – but does not guarantee – anonymity. It does so by: making the user's internet traffic appear to come from a different IP address, thus obscuring the user's location; preventing someone watching your local traffic (e.g. your ISP) from seeing or limiting your website visits; and routing connections through multiple relays.

The Tor Browser and associated onion services are often used by journalists, human rights advocates, and others in adversarial environments where the threat model goes beyond marketers. Criminals may do so too, but as the Tor Project argues, they have better options.

Other browsers also support connection through the Tor network, such as Orbot, Onion Browser and Brave.

You can read more at: https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/25/tor_browser_update_improves_interface/.

The Tor Project (and browser) is available at: https://www.torproject.org/.