Yes definitely I will look at https://www.torproject.org/

I wouldn't know if they hauled some off or not but what I'm sure of is one should be more careful here in usa more than in Egypt.

If I really wanted to remain anonymous, I wouldn't answer questions about how I do it.

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I don't even try and don't use a pseudo. That helps me remember that all I say is and will stay for a long time accessible to everyone, so better try avoiding to post something I could regret

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tor and the likes just draws unnecessary interest.
If you don't have anything to hide, don't.

Personally, i find that bad advice.
You can take the argument of, if you have nothing to hide.... why do you close your curtains or lower the blinds in the evening?

The same concept goes in computing. You hide because you don't want others looking in your windows (pardon the pun; or your linux) such as your ISP or some shady guy monitoring further down the line on the remote side. You might be browsing "grey" area material without knowing it, you could be bored and feel like reading up on mycology or something, and next thing you know you're on a GCHQ list for suspected drug dealing/growing.

I feel anonymity should be enforced at all times unless you are publishing something you want people to see.... like software, or a paper etc where you might want to be credited by a real name.

I don't think tor draws unnecessary interest though. The more people that use it, the more data exists, the foggier it gets. When Mozilla starts integrating tor into the anonymous browsing mode, you'll get lost in the crowd more easier than you would browsing through a clearnet address.

When I want to use internet, I use the internet.
When I want to remain anonymous, I don't use the internet.

- Master Foo.

conclusion so far is:
1- using tor is the only solution we have, and it's not effective solution.
2- Some knows better ways but they are not willing to share. but how they know for sure they are anonymous? they could be the only ones who think they are anonymous while they are not.
3- Some recommend not to try to be anonymous at all.

I think what I'm going to do is research more and keep looking at Tor project hoping they improve and come up with a real solution.

Yes and No. Tor does draw unwanted interest. Everybody has something to hide including the politicians who ask you if you have something to hide, but never ask themselves that question. This isn't really about that, but full anonymity allows people to commit crimes without being punished, that I am against, but luckily nothing like that exists.

I'm more surprised as to why Bitcoin is good, but Tor is bad. I'd say Bitcoin is orders of magnitude worse than Tor. I mean anonymous currency, could money launderers ask for anything better.

Having said that, Tor does have its uses, such as in oppressive places. If you are not in an oppressive place and do not use Tor for free speech, then you shouldn't be using Tor.

I think what most people actually want is privacy not anonymity. Privacy allows you to surf the web without being tracked by ad companies and force fed targeted advertising. Heck ad companies now want to feed you targeted advertising by watching you through your smart TV webcam. They are really nice people it seems, so that's why I always use NoScript and Adblock, these go a long way to preserving your privacy.

I cannot recommend any anonymity solution, because none of them work perfectly and they are unlikely to be used for good.

Although Tor has plenty of potential vulnerabilities as per the wiki on Tor, the one that concerns me the most is no end-to-end encryption. Anyone on your local network, including your router, which is in general very insecure / easily hacked can see your Tor traffic unencrypted.

Bitcoin is the opposite of anonymous. Every single transaction is published for all to see on the block chain. Unless you actually mined the bitcoins yourself (over tor, too), which suffers from the law of diminishing returns and is basically impossible for an average person today, you must exchange real cash/goods for bitcoins somewhere, and that transaction, and every transaction after that, are all publicly visible. If someone can trace the transaction to an exchange, they can compel the exchange service to identify you (assuming they kept records, which you can never be sure they don't). Anyone who treats bitcoin as an anonymous currency is a moron -- cash is much more anonymous despite the serial numbers.
Source please? *ALL* tor traffic to the first and second relays is encrypted. Your tor traffic will never be unencrypted on your local network. If there is no end-to-end encryption, your information will be visible *at the exit node*. The idea is this: the first relay knows where the information is coming from, but not what it is or where it is going; the second relay knows only where the information is being routed from/to, but not where it originated from, where it's going, or what it is; the exit node knows what the information is (if there is no end-to-end encryption) and where it is going but not where it originated from. (Note that there are some timing attacks that can potentially link traffic from the first relay to the exit node -- this is difficult but not impossible. If an adversary can do this, then your anonymity is sunk.) Unless you fundamentally understand tor and how to (roughly) preserve your anonymity using the service, you should not be using it. Misusing tor is far worse for anonymity than not using it at all.

I selectively use tor only for activities that can be anonymous -- nothing personal, linking any identity (real or online) to tor usage, for example -- but I don't use tor for anything nefarious. I know too much to consider tor or any other anonymity solution to be sound enough to protect illegal activity; if I wanted to commit such acts (which obviously I don't), I don't believe it can be done well. I mainly use tor as an anonymous proxy more to prevent the site owner from tracking my activity than maintaining true anonymity across the internet.

Alright, I guess I don't understand how it works, but I don't use it, so that's fine. I doubt too many people both use and understand it. I have never found a clear layman explanation of what it actually does. Either way it can be broken as per the FBI arresting many people who used it to deal drugs.

It isn't impossible to 'break' tor but as far as I know most of the drug busts have been possible because the dealers slipped up and allowed their identity to be found by other means. I could be wrong, but I don't know of any cases in which the actual protocol was responsible for the bust. (But again, this just reinforces how difficult it is to maintain anonymity even when using tor -- the user is usually the weakest link.)

The unencrypted traffic is actually on the side of the exit node and it is a potential vulnerability:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_%2...%29#Weaknesses

Also see:
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tho...ration-onymous
The Tor devs themselves don't know how the FBI did it, but suggest that it could have been an attack on the network.

There is also a link on there about deanonymizing Bitcoin:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.7418

The conclusion is that there is no anonymity on the internet, and those that want it are likely up to no good, and heck that may be the whole point of Tor, to herd together people who want it.

You can believe whatever you want, but you don't need to quote me and keep arguing. It seems that you are convinced that you need Tor and that it is secure, and there is nothing anyone can say that will convince you otherwise.

I honestly don't see how you can reach these conclusions. The second one is not even a conclusion but an assumption. And probably a wrong one, unless you also classify something like viewing pornography as "no good", in which case you would be technically correct but with a twisted moral sense. And in fact there are perfectly cromulent reasons for desiring anonymity, no least reporting a crime (e.g. Manning).

And "no anonymity on the internet"... May be you are trying to simplify, but in this case we shouldn't. Of course there is a near-perfect anonymity, but like you yourself say, Tor alone probably won't buy it. Some things (like secrets) cannot be uttered anonymously because of their content, but most things can. Make sure your software is free, leave behind anything tracking location, spoof the IP, put on a hoodie, go to Starbucks or McDonalds, minimize camera exposure the whole time, use Tor, do something that does not identify you by content alone, leave right away.