Pro Tip: Keep your boss from snooping on you with Tor messenger beta

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Even some of my screenshot has to be secure.
Even some of my screenshot has to be secure.
Screen: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug While you may chat about state secrets while on your Mac at work, you might not want your chats to get out there or be archived. The answer is to use encryption so no one can intercept your messages and figure out you’re really angry at your boss.

The Tor Project aims to make anonymous, off-the-record chats simple with a new instant messenger app you can run on your Mac or Windows PC. Simply run the app (now in beta), log in to your preferred instant messaging service or services, and talk about whatever you want, secure in the knowledge that your chats are safe from your boss’ prying eyes.

The app itself is based on an open source messaging client called Instantbird, and it works a lot like Adium, another fantastic messaging client. While you can make Adium and Pidgin (another messenger client app) work with encryption, it’s a pain in the butt. Tor’s new app makes encryption the default, routing all your messaging traffic through its encrypting service without any effort needed on your part.

To make it happen, download Tor, then drag the resulting app to your Applications folder.

Drag the Tor icon into your Applications folder, then launch.
Drag the Tor icon into your Applications folder, then launch.
Screen: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Launch the Tor app and choose a service. If you want to chat over Google Talk and you use two-step verification, you’ll need to create an app-specific password (here’s how) for the Tor service.

Once you’ve logged in with Jabber (XMPP), IRC, Google Talk, Facebook Chat, or Yahoo, you’ll be able to chat anonymously and securely without any other extra hacking.

Note, however, that this is just the first beta for the Tor messenger. As one of the co-developers of the project told The Verge, “People shouldn’t rely on this for strong anonymity” yet.

Grab the messenger and give it a shot — it’s no harder to set up than Adium ever was, and you can at least feel comfortable that you’re able to talk to other folks on the services you already use without compromising your privacy.

Source: The Tor Project

Via: The Verge

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