The Onion Browser Brings Anonymous, Encrypted Browsing To iOS

Do what you like on the internet and never get caught

Attention dissidents, free-thinkers or just people who are plain on the run: now you can take your iPad with you and not get caught. Onion Browser is a Universal iOS web browser which will hook into the Tor network to provide you with anonymous browsing, wherever you are.

Tor, or The Onion Router, is a combination of software and a rag tag volunteer fleet of users. When you install the software, your web connections are routed through this network, making many hops before arriving at their destination. This anonymizes your traffic and makes it impossible to trace your IP address and therefore your physical location.

Previously, you had to install OS X software (or client software for other computer platforms) to use TOR. Now, with the Onion Browser, you can do it with your iPhone or iPad.

The Onion Browser will tunnel your connection through the Tor network, concealing your IP address and also encrypting all data before it leaves your device. You can also spoof your user agent to hide the fact that you’re using an iOS device (handy for iPhone users who work at Microsoft) and even tunnel out through corporate firewalls and country-wide censorship.

What’s more, the developer — Mike Tigas — has made the source code available both on his website and on GitHub, so you can check inside to see just what it’s doing. He is also donating 10% of his cut of the 99-cent asking price to Tor and the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).

The Onion Browser isn’t the only Tor-compatible browser in the app store, but Mike says he set out to make something more stable, while implementing extra features like cookie support.

I’m downloading it now. Not that I have much to hide, but if I suddenly have to go underground to escape the invading lizard aliens (disguised as humans), then I want to be ready.

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