You may have read last week that I’ll be trying different methods of going incognito for the next couple of weeks while I continue to investigate to what extent online anonymity is possible.

This week saw me take on the basics in untraceable browsing using the Tor Network and testing similar alternatives to Google.

“using open browser is like walking down a street treading footsteps you do not own”

Firstly, back to Sunday, where I travelled down to The Marwood Cafe in Brighton for a “Cryptoparty”- If you haven’t heard the term, these are laid back events designed for anyone and everyone, however tech savvy, to learn methods of staying safe, secure and private on the web. As one attendee noted early on “using open browser is like walking down a street treading footsteps you do not own” so on hand was Silkie Carlo, co-author of Information Security for Journalists to share her tips for browsing without a trace – so you can own your footprint.

The Tor network, unlike mainstream search engines, reroutes your location at least three times before sending you to your search result. Your end code will be a random location in the world, fantastic for protecting your online whereabouts. So when is Tor useful? For journalists and researchers in particular notes Silkie “sometimes topics are sensitive and you don’t want large corporations questioning your motives for looking at them. They shouldn’t anyway but Tor gives extra protection in that area.”

After downloading Tor on Sunday I tried my hand at using it throughout the week. My experience with the browser was overall pretty positive. I mean, lets not be naive, there is a noticeable speed difference going over to the Tor network from the likes of Firefox and Chrome. Having said this, despite the slightly slower connection speed, the experience is extremely user friendly, more than I expected for an encrypted piece of software. The styling of Tor is just like any other search engine, there is no scary coding or new knowledge required to surfing online, all the rerouting is automatic when you open up the program and then it’s just down to you to be sensible.

Of course with all crypto methods there are limitations. Why do you think the Internet offers us so much at an apparent cost of absolutely “nothing”? The price comes from the data we pump into it 24 around the clock. A big trap I found hard to avoid when using Tor was logging into public websites using my real name e.g. Facebook. In hindsight it seems beyond obvious that wanting anonymity and then signing into accounts, where I am left stark public to the world, is a complete contradiction. I knew that, and yet it was second nature to part with some of my identity in exchange for the service.

All in all, for checking the news, conducting research on hard-hitting topics and general web browsing, the Tor network is a useful tool that anybody can use if they want a level of guaranteed anonymity. However, if you want to carry on your exact day to day life, truthfully logging into your Netflix account whilst pretending to be in Canada, your efforts to gain back privacy are stumped.

With that in mind, another solution that I also tried this week which requires no downloading at all is the untraceable search engine Duckduckgo (visit online now). If you’re somebody that can’t give up on your online social platforms completely but really doesn’t agree with the way Google uses its data on you, from knowing your browsing habits and selling that to advertisers to tracking your location using its map service, I would definitely recommend Duckduckgo. Stylistically the option is just as slick as its mainstream counterparts, the speed is just as incredible and their reputation and popularity amongst internet users continues to soar (the search engine reached 10 million searches in a single day back in June 2015.)

If you’re someone that uses the Tor network or Duckduckgo regularly, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know your experiences with either of the browsers and your reasons for using them in the comments below or via twitter @surf_incognito

Next week in my incognito journey I’ll be jumping in the deep end and going cold turkey from social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram)