Operating systems - Tails

Tails is a privacy focused live operating system based on Debian running from an external storage device (i.a USB stick, SD card, DVD). A suitable solution for activists, journalist, their sources, domestic violence survivors and whoever needs extra privacy.

Privacy

Tor network

Users can anonymously access Internet and circumvent censorship with Tor. A network composed of thousand of volunteer-run nodes worldwide routing Internet traffic by randomly selecting a circuit between a user and a visited website or service and preventing traffic from both the source and the endpoint to be viewed by the same entity hence countering network surveillance and traffic analysis.

Amnesic properties

Users can be sure to not leave any trace of their digital activities on their device as no data is written into disk.

Persistent storage

Unless they choose to enable persistent storage to save configuration state, newly installed software or user data.

Limitations

Tor detection

Users worried about local network or internet service provider dectecting their use of Tor should enable a bridge. However this will not stop visited website from having this information as exit nodes are public.

Single session use

Users should use Tails for a single purpose at at time and restart it when switching to a new one to avoid linking the different activities together.

Trusted devices

Users should install Tails from a trusted machine and not use it on one with compromise hardware or firmware (software providing low-level control and hardware abstraction).

Usability

Preinstalled software

Users may benefit from a ready to use system with the following preinstalled software: the Gnome desktop environment, the Tor Web Browser, the anonymous file sharing OnionShare, the email client Thunderbird, the office suite LibreOffice, the image editors GIMP and Inkscape, the audio software Audacity, the metadata removal tools MetaData Cleaner, mat2, the password manager KeePassXC and many more.

Sources


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