How to use Tor on an iPhone

Are you looking for a comprehensive guide that can help you in accessing Tor on an iPhone device?

23:06 19 December 2019

If yes, then you’re on the right page because today I am going to share a step by step guide on how you can do it. So without wasting time anymore, let’s get started-

What is Tor?

The Tor project was created in the mid-90s by a group of people with a motive to enhance online privacy and anonymity. It is an entirely non-profit organisation that gets almost 80% of its fund by the US government. It is mainly designed to provide an anonymous environment where people can communicate and use the internet without the fear of losing their identity.

After doing so many researches, they successfully created a network full of encryption and security that gives you an anonymous environment to access the internet. It uses a technology called onion routing that bounces the websites’ and internet users’ traffic through ‘relays,’ These relays are run by thousands of volunteers around the globe to make it extremely hard for anyone to identify the location of the users.

Who created Tor and why?

The idea of Tor or we can say onion routing was developed by the employees of United States Naval Research Laboratory. Initially, it was created with a purpose to provide a secure and anonymous environment where their spies can communicate easily, and no one can trace them.

But later they understood that even if they created a tool and a network that bumps the location, tracking them wouldn’t be that tough because there is a minimal number of users and because of that, they made this tool open-source so that the number of users will get an increment and tracking become tough. It was the reason why Tor become such a vast network now, and even the government don’t have control over it.

Who uses Tor?

According to the Tor project team, their users fall into four main groups. First one is normal users that want to keep their identity secure while performing their activities from websites — those users who are concerned about cyber spying.

The other group of users contains US military professionals, activists, journalists and others working on the same profession. They use it to make a secure conversation because they share highly critical information.

The third group of their users are bloggers, cybersecurity experts, IT professionals, law enforcement officers and others. They use it to hide their identity while investigating “Doubtful websites and services.”

The last group of users are probably hackers and others who are there for doing just business or performing illegal activities. I mean, we all know that darknet is infamous for their illicit activities.

How to access the dark web on iPhone

To access Tor websites, you need to use a browser that supports onion routing technology. Unfortunately, Tor officially has not launched any such software for the iOS platforms, and if you still want to access it, you need to use any other browser that supports onion routing technology such as Onion Browser.

Although here is a step by step guide that you can follow to access the Tor through your iPhone. But there is no guarantee that you’ll be 100% secure because there is no official tool by Tor for iOS devices. However, here is how you can dive into the Tor network on your iPhone-

Download a VPN

The very first thing that you need do on your iPhone is to install a trusted VPN. It is highly required if you don’t want to left your footprints on the Tor network. It will help in creating an additional layer of protection to protect your identity from hackers while surfing this network. Make sure the VPN has a good reputation because cheaper and the free ones don’t provide enough security. Take a look at best vpn providers and get one for you right now.

Download Onion Browser

The next thing that you need to do is to download and install the Onion Browser from the App Store. After a successful installation, open it, and it will give you two options – Configure brides and connect to Tor.

Here you need to tap on connect to Tor button, and within a few seconds, it will connect you to the Tor network. Now you can use this network to make your identity secure and anonymous while surfing the internet.

Like other Tor browsers, Onion browser also uses the technology that bumps your traffic on different computers to keep your identity anonymous. Because of this, you will notice that web pages are taking more than usual time while loading up. Also, some of the web pages won’t render correctly.

Another issue with this Onion Browser is requesting a new IP. I mean on Tor browser, you just need to click on ‘Request a New IP’, and within seconds it will allocate you a new IP bridge. While on Onion Browser, you need to force quit the app first and after that, you need to relaunch it.

For basic daily tasks like surfing regular web pages, this browser will work perfectly fine, but if you’re willing to dive into the dark world, I would never recommend using this browser.

Final Verdict

Accessing regular internet with the help of this browser is okay, but if you intend to get into the dark world, then smartphones are never a good option. The dark web is a very critical place to surf, and while surfing it, your primary concern must be privacy. A single mistake could cost you a lot.

Accessing the Tor network using an iPhone device is not tough at all but nor secured as well. After all, there is no such official tool available for that, and that’s why I would never suggest you rely on these browsers entirely.

I will personally suggest you not to use the Tor from your smartphone. Instead, use an utterly formatted PC. Also, you can use virtual machines such as VMWare along with a VPN and TAILS OS on your computer to access the Tor.