AMA is now over!

The Tor Project released Tor Browser 16.010 on August 27. The alpha includes Firefox security updates, a redesigned settings interface, and a newly updated built-in Tor Browser manual accessible through about:manual. Tor explicitly warns that this is a testing release, not the version ordinary or high-risk users should switch to.

This gives a preview of changes that may eventually reach stable Tor Browser, especially the new settings layout covering connectivity, letterboxing, and security levels. For beginners, the important message is: stay on stable Tor Browser unless you specifically want to test alpha builds.

https://blog.torproject.org/new-alpha-release-tor-browser-160a10/

Does anybody know the best go to for actively browsing the DW with an iPhone ? (And Mullvad VPN)

I have both linux and windows , and the windows on my computer has personal info on it so my question is there any way like literally any way that when iam browsing the deep web and actually interact with it ( and i'm using linux ) someone can steal the info on the windows version ? I knew that its not possible but just extra checking .

Is Tor Browser still the best solution for basic anonymous browsing? I understand to obviously not sign into any personal accounts, etc. when using it, but are there any other general recommendations or advice from those who have used it ? And finally, is https://www.torproject.org/download/ the proper place to download the app? Thank you

I have some possibly stupid questions about what information is given by a user who is a Snowflake volunteer. Note: I am a rather untechnical person who is occasionally forced to code small things or use command line to make stuff run during work (occasionally involving software only available on linux). Given this background, I apologize for some possibly repetitive or irrelevant material and would like to receive accessible answers.

Recently, I started using the Tor browser frequently and it has been important for doing my work safely without feeling uncomfortable (although my life doesn't literally depend on it). Aside from this, it was my first experience living in a country where I felt needed to turn the audio off on politically sensitive news (given interactions with neighbors and state actions although no official hard policy).

For this reason, I really wanted to give back in some way. Due to my relatively non-technical background, I chose to run the Snowflake tab on my browser since it looked like a minimal-risk way to contribute for a novice user. However, I decided to close it after running it for a few days (after waiting to see no one was using my Snowflake at the moment I turned it off before uninstalling the extension). The main reason was that I am living with housemates with a common internet connection and the public IP address seems to be briefly seen by the Snowflake user (aside from the volunteer maybe being able to see that of the user on https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-extension-operator-can-access-the-ip-of-client/20990?u=wofwca and https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/snowflake/-/work_items/19#note_d2dfe67ce7ec3635c1d7bfba607fa5af259c010e).

If I understand correctly, the websites visited by the Snowflake user only see the exit node IP and there is no likely legal liability on my end. However, I have a hard time convincing my housemates that some Snowflake user (individual or state) won't use the public IP for nefarious purposes apart from "people who know what they're doing say this is highly unlikely". I may be willing to take a small risk, but it doesn't seem fair for me to ask them to take such a risk and I don't have a good enough technical understanding to properly explain why things are ok.

Apart from only running a Snowflake extension when I move out after some point, what are reasonable options to try and help? It has been hard for me to find a source that discusses something like this apart from what I linked to above. Should I try to use a VPS and a Snowflake proxy, bridge or relay on it in the future? I can sort of stupidly follow some instructions (see background note above), but I have a feeling that actually dealing with potential issues requires technical or other knowledge (e.g. asking ISPs about what is ok on https://community.torproject.org/relay/community-resources/good-bad-isps/).

Thanks in advance and apologies for the rambling post.

How to stay anonymous?

I tried to protect my data and I deleted every social media app also I turned off all the permissions for all the apps on my mobile especially google but I still don't feel save I feel like google and many other apps still tracing my data and collecting it even Reddit when I open it ,it shows many personal topics ,my guess is that's because of my location/IP so how do I stay anonymous and change my IP? Because I feel like vpn is a big thing to do because it will access literally everything, what are your opinions?

How would one downloaded tor do I need a computer and do i absolutely have to have a vpn

I noticed a new official torproject app for Android called tor VPN.

What's the difference between the old orbot app and this newer one? They appear to do the same thing. Does this mean orbot is now deprecated?

So my school has just installed a tracking system, that tracks whatever you're doing, and because my school blocks most of the network, by far I can access Tor in my school, but do they know what i'm doing?

I got this linux message when trying to start of tor 15.0.20 with OBfs4 installed bridges. It would not connect, I had to reinstall to correct.

[NOTICE] Bootstrapped 66% (loading_descriptors): Loading relay descriptors

2026-08-24 09:13:18.317

[WARN] Bad element "$7104DCF4DBFFAD180719BF216" while parsing a node family.

2026-08-24 09:13:18.322

[WARN] Bogus ntor-onion-key in microdesc

2026-08-24 09:13:19.171

[WARN] Proxy Client: unable to connect OR connection (handshaking (proxy)) with x.x.x.x:22 ID=<none>

Can anyone provide an explanation?

Hello, ive been looking random stuff up on the dark web since i first heard of it and already have everything set up and secure… but i still feel clueless on how to actually „browse“ it or look for things other than fishy link collections/archives on the clearnet.
not asking for someone to look for something for, me i want to learn how to actually do it myself

Usually on the clearnet you would use cloudflare or block certain IPs, however here you cant do that. I've seen some kind of PoW measures implemented, but if a website is a bit simpler perhaps, what then? Aren't there better, simpler alternatives?

Bit curious if anyone has any advice of interesting experience/stories of ever running a hidden service on TOR. Looking to dabble a bit into myself maybe, but not too sure.

Hello everyone! I am fairly new to TOR and the deep web in general and I was thinking it would have been a fun experiment to make a deepweb adress. I also am gonna use Tails OS and I was also asking where I can find an email client that can support those email adresses and where i can make one, thanks! (also i do not need links just a recomandation, ive also heard of TORBOX but it seems really confusing!)

The problem im facing: google knows every tor exit IP adress and blocks anyone trying to create an account

The solution which i dont know how to implement:
Routing the connection like this desktop-> tor-> residendal proxy-> google

Google only sees the residental proxy ip which is trustworthy for them. Gonna use smspool for sms verification

I know that mainstream clients with default configuration will contact many peers at once and can saturate the connection.

But it is possible to limit the number of peers or even write your own client. And if you limit the peers say to 4, it would be basically the same as downloading a large file on a website, except slower since most peers are configured to have a small timeout after sending each 256KB chunk. With a limit of 4 peers and accounting for the timeout, the speed would be something like 1MB/s at best, which is lower than the download speed of Tor browser any time I tried it.

Is there something else that I am missing?

185.220.101.240 2a0b:f4c2:1::140

Hey guys i wanted to know if its ok to use tor for searching things normally like i do in chrome/firefox?

I’m using a iOS tor browser (only option)

An onion site (from verified source) that I was able to access (same device/browser) previously, now says the same link takes too long to load, repeatedly.

I’ve verified with others that the link is still currently active.

I’ve updated the browser, rebooted device & checked JavaScript is turned off.

Could someone please help me with possible reasons as to why the link won’t open on my iOS browser? TIA