Hello everyone,
I don't want to waste your time, so let's get straight to the questions.
I use Qubes-Whonix, and I have a few questions regarding anonymity and security.
1 - Is there any difference in anonymity, privacy, or security when accessing an onion site compared to a clearnet site? As far as I know, when accessing an onion site, TOR uses six hops, and 5/6ths of the path don't know the user or destination. On the other hand, when accessing a clearnet site, the connection uses three relays, where two of them don't know the user or destination. Therefore, accessing the clearnet through TOR is more traceable. Am I right? If so, is it something to worry about, especially given that I use Qubes-Whonix?
2 - Are there any real advantages to using obfs4, FTE, Snowflake, Meek, or any type of pluggable transport, bridges, tunnels, etc? Or is using a VPN the safest option? My country doesn't block TOR.
3 - I have read that to avoid standing out, I shouldn't install any add-ons, just configure TOR in the safest way possible. How true is this? I have read wonderful things about uMatrix, for example. Is it okay if I use it? Is it even useful?
4 - There are different opinions on whether Monero or Bitcoin is more anonymous. I want to learn more about this. Do you have any good resources?
5 - I would like to access some clearnet services such as news sites, Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, etc., while maintaining my privacy and anonymity. Any suggestions on how I should do it, do's and don'ts?
Thank you all.
I don't want to waste your time, so let's get straight to the questions.
I use Qubes-Whonix, and I have a few questions regarding anonymity and security.
1 - Is there any difference in anonymity, privacy, or security when accessing an onion site compared to a clearnet site? As far as I know, when accessing an onion site, TOR uses six hops, and 5/6ths of the path don't know the user or destination. On the other hand, when accessing a clearnet site, the connection uses three relays, where two of them don't know the user or destination. Therefore, accessing the clearnet through TOR is more traceable. Am I right? If so, is it something to worry about, especially given that I use Qubes-Whonix?
2 - Are there any real advantages to using obfs4, FTE, Snowflake, Meek, or any type of pluggable transport, bridges, tunnels, etc? Or is using a VPN the safest option? My country doesn't block TOR.
3 - I have read that to avoid standing out, I shouldn't install any add-ons, just configure TOR in the safest way possible. How true is this? I have read wonderful things about uMatrix, for example. Is it okay if I use it? Is it even useful?
4 - There are different opinions on whether Monero or Bitcoin is more anonymous. I want to learn more about this. Do you have any good resources?
5 - I would like to access some clearnet services such as news sites, Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, etc., while maintaining my privacy and anonymity. Any suggestions on how I should do it, do's and don'ts?
Thank you all.