Learn About Tails -- an Operating System That Helps Protect

This updated guide examines Learn About Tails -- an Operating System That Helps Protect and organizes the essential facts, background, and practical takeaways in clear American English.

Tails is a complete operating system designed to be used from a USB or DVD independent of the computer's original operating system. Tails is free and based on Debian GNU / Linux.

Tails comes with a number of pre-configured built-in applications for security purposes: Web browser, instant messaging application, email client, Office suite, image and audio editor, etc.

Anonymous online and circumvent censorship laws

Tails relies on the Tor anonymous network to protect users' online privacy:

• All software is configured to connect to the Internet via Tor
• If an application tries to connect directly to the Internet, the connection is automatically blocked for security.

Tor is an open and distributed network that protects against traffic analysis, a form of network monitoring that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, as well as National security.

Tor protects you by transmitting information around a relay network operated by volunteers around the world: It prevents others from viewing your Internet connection to find out what websites you visit and to block those The website you visit learns your physical location.

Using Tor, you can:

• Be anonymous online by hiding your real location.
• Connections to the services will be censored in another way.
• Against attacks that prevent the use of Tor, with 'circumvention' tools such as bridges.

To learn more about Tor, see the official website at:

https://www.torproject.org/

Use anywhere without leaving a trace

Using Tails on a computer does not change or depend on the operating system installed on it. So you can use it the same way on your computer, a friend's computer or someone at the library, for example. After turning off Tails, the computer will reboot with the normal operating system.

Tails is configured with special care to not use your computer's hard drive, even if there is some swap space on them. The only storage space used by Tails is in RAM, which is automatically deleted when the computer is turned off. So you won't leave any traces of the Tails system itself or what you used through Tails on the computer.

This allows you to work with sensitive documents on any computer and protect you from data recovery after shutdown. Of course, you can still save specific documents to another USB drive or external hard drive and carry them away for future use.

The most advanced coding tool

Tails also comes with a range of tool options to protect user data, using strong encryption:

• Encrypt your USB or external hard drive using LUKS, the Linux standard for encrypting drives.
• Automatically use HTTPS to encrypt all users' communications to some major websites with HTTPS Everywhere, a Firefox extension developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
• Encrypt, sign emails and documents with the actual OpenPGP standard from the Tails email client, text editor or file browser.
• Protect instant messaging conversations with OTR, an encryption tool that offers encryption, authentication, and rejection.
• Safely delete files and clean disk space with Nautilus Wipe.

How to install Tails

To know how to install Tails, please refer to the article: Instructions to install Tails on Windows.