Is TOR on a phone a good idea?

Looking at the post about the HDD's earlier and the police raid. It got me thinking of how safe it is to browse markets on an iOS or Android device?

I know of course it's not as secure, but does it leave behind traces? I only browse every few days would this be an issue to just have a look on my phone?


Comments


[5 Points] owockEznan:

The problem with TOR on your phone is this:

You're not gonna be connected for long, most programs for a phone don't support socks proxies, and even if they do, there is no promise that other data won't leak out of the phone. And Orbot is just a fail browser that really doesn't work even to surf clearnet sites. That means that your cell provider will be able to determine when you were on tor -- those sorts of things can eventually lead to you getting caught.

The only way I've to get my phone to not leak everywhere is to set up a VPN back to equipment I have physical control over, and force the phone to route all traffic thru it (you can do this, at least on some VPN software, by telling it it's joining a VPN of with hostnet 0.0.0.0/0 ). Then you set up an extremely strict firewall and force all non-firewalled connections thru privoxy with a very restrictive setup. All UDP connections are either dropped or routed to tor's DNS server.

All in all, it's just much easier to wait until you are home where you have total control over the software being run on your machine.


[2 Points] sohhlz:

Unfortunately, cellular telephones are much less secure than PC's, because there are usually two processors on board. These are the applications processor and the baseband processor. The application processor controls the user interface and is quite often running a Linux derivative (Android). The baseband processor runs proprietary closed source code, controls the cellular radio and is master over the applications processor.

Most security articles about cellphones focus on the use of a rogue cellular radio transmitter taking control of your phone. What if the cellular company itself is under court order to take control of your phone?

http://dwaterson.com/2013/11/18/vulnerabilities-of-the-second-operating-system-of-your-smartphone/


[1 Points] galaxyandspace:

This blog post details how to set up a very secure android device: https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy (caution: this process is not for noobs)

On /r/darknetmarketsnoobs sidebar, I have a short piece on using android somewhat securely, but no where near as secure and detailed as the link above. The setup I suggest should be secure enough for random browsing, BUT NO BUYING.

On iOS? Forget about it. iOS is not a very secure platform. Apple owns your data if you use it.

If you are not tech inclined, stick to a lappy or desktop.


[1 Points] Aalewis420:

On a burner phone it doesn't matter. Buy a cheap android for 40 bucks and just use that.


[-1 Points] None:

I don't see how Tor on a phone would be any more or less secure than Tor on a computer. Smartphones are just pocket-sized computers. My iPhone's iOS functions nearly identical at an OS level as my MacBook. This is just a guess, I'd love someone who knows to tell, though.