Most privacy advice starts with tools. Install this, turn that on, use the other thing. It skips the question that decides whether any of it is worth doing: protecting yourself from whom?
That question has a name, a threat model, and the name makes it sound harder than it is. It just means working out what you’re trying to protect, who you’re trying to protect it from, and how much trouble that deserves. This article walks through it in order.
Why it matters
A setup that is exactly right for one person is pointless for another. Someone who wants their internet provider to stop logging their browsing needs very little. Someone whose safety depends on a source never being identified needs a great deal more. Give both people the same advice and one ends up doing far more than necessary, while the other ends up doing far too little.
The habits in using Tor well over time are only worth keeping if they match a real concern. A threat model is how you find out which ones do.
Four questions
You don’t need a template. Four questions are enough, and you can answer them on the back of an envelope.
1. What am I protecting? Be specific. Your location, your identity, who you talk to, what you read, the contents of your messages, your files. Different things need different protection, and most people care a lot about one or two of them and barely at all about the rest.
2. Who am I protecting it from? Pick the realistic ones. Common examples: advertisers and trackers, your internet provider, a website you visit, someone you share a home or network with, an employer, a hostile person who knows you. Governments and large organisations belong on the list only if they genuinely have a reason to be interested in you.
3. How bad is it if I fail? Annoying, embarrassing, expensive, dangerous? The honest answer sets how much effort is sensible.
4. How much inconvenience will I actually put up with? A routine you abandon in a month protects you less than a lighter one you keep for years. Be realistic about yourself.
Three examples
Keeping your provider out of your business
The thing you’re protecting is your browsing history, and the party is your internet provider. Tor Browser with its default settings does this well. Nothing else is needed. The rest of this article’s heavier advice is overkill for you, and that’s fine.
Reading and researching without being profiled
Here the concern is advertisers and data brokers building a picture of you from what you look at. Tor Browser helps. So does keeping your everyday accounts away from the browser, which is the habit of keeping identities apart. You gain most from discipline, not from extra tools.
Protecting someone else
If another person’s safety depends on you not being identified, the stakes change, and so should the effort: a separate device or account, careful handling of files and metadata, and possibly a system like Tails. This is the situation where the full list of habits earns its keep. It is also where it is worth reading beyond a single article.
What Tor does and doesn’t cover
A threat model only helps if you know what your tools can do. Tor hides where a connection comes from. It doesn’t hide what you tell a website about yourself, it doesn’t make a careless login anonymous, and it says nothing about the computer you are using. What Tor hides and what it doesn’t goes through those limits in detail, and it’s worth reading next if you haven’t.
Bitcoin is a common example of the same mistake. People assume it is private because it has no name attached. It isn’t, and the answer to whether Bitcoin is anonymous depends entirely on what you’re trying to hide and from whom.
Revisit it now and then
Your threat model isn’t permanent. A new job, a new project, a change in who knows you, or simply a different way of using the internet can move it. Every so often, ask the four questions again. If the answers have changed, your habits should change with them.
The short version
Privacy isn’t a single setting you switch on. It’s matching your effort to a real concern. Write down what you’re protecting, who from, what failure would cost, and how much effort you’ll keep up. Then choose the habits and tools that fit that answer, and ignore the rest.
Next
What is Tor? A plain-language introduction is the place to start if you’re new. Installing Tor Browser, step by step covers the setup once you know what you need.