A little over fifteen years ago a couple MIT students and Navy-funding built the first The Onion Router, or Tor. An amazing experiments granting anonymity to anyone using it. The millions of us using it today are very thankful to them.
Why Tor?
There is no reason to rewrite the whole concept here, you can read about it on the Tor Projects website. It is the best way currently to stay anonymous while browsing the web. It prevents anyone watching your internet usage, from learning what websites you go to, and stops the websites from determining your location.
It is also the only way to be able to access what the news media and movies lately like referring to as the Dark Web. Opens up the possibly of untraceable messaging and other services of importance when you want to avoid snoops. It is also a powerful anti-censorship tools for countries with ridiculous blocks, opening up Google, Facebook, and Twitter to these people who could not otherwise access them. It may be the only way that an old lady in china can play FarmVille!
How do I use Tor?
The answer may depend on what you are trying to accomplish. It is definitely possible to route all of your traffic through Tor, but it is not always the best option. You can easily configure any Linux distro to run everything through Tor if that is what you want to do. There are also some small portable routers on the market that will send all traffic that goes through them through the Tor network. If I wanted to do that I would just used a Raspberry Pi and build it into a Tor router. If anyone requests it I can post a tutorial on doing that.
The vast majority of people will be able to meet their needs with the Tor browser, which you can get on http://torproject.org. Proper use of the browser will effectively cloak your browsing habits and location.
You can download the Tails linux distro and install it on a USB stick. When you want total anonymity simply plug in the stick and boot to Tails and everything you do will be sent through Tor.
Parting Thoughts on Anonymity
I obviously have just scratched the surface of the subject in this post. I would love feedback and any questions you have that could lead into specific tutorials. Do you need help making a bootable Tails USB? Maybe you can't figure out the Tor Browser and would benefit from a more in depth tutorial? Interested in seeing the Raspberry Pi Tor router? Or something completely different.
There is also a very big place for VPN services. I personally have used TorGuard.net for several years now and highly recommend them. If you choose to try them out, enter my coupon code: mrunderstood and you will get 50% off for life. I do get an affiliate referral fee is you sign up through my code, but that is not why I am recommending this service.
Please do not think anonymity is only an issue for people who are doing something wrong and trying to hide it. It is a matter of principal. Facebook shouldn't be able to track every detail they want about me, nor should Google.com. Tor will help with that problem.
There are many good groups out there fighting for internet freedom worldwide. We should all do what we can to support them. Information should always be free.
