Does it matter when I connect to Tor Network ?

General Tor and Anonymity Talk
1

Hi

  1. Does it matter when I connect to Tor, for example: If I’m using tor at 7pm when more people are using internet or at 3am.
  2. Is it dangerous if someone from my network is using browsing/surfing his bank account, facebook account while I’m using Tor ?
  3. Is there any difference if:
    a) I’m using tor and at 2:20pm I disconnect from Tor and at 2:25pm I connect to facebook or bank account
    b) I’m using tor and at 2:20pm I disconnect from Tor and connect to my facebook or bank account after 24 hours ?
2

Hi sujyo

  1. It think it would make a difference if you used Tor at time when there were a large number of other people using Tor. I don’t think general internet traffic alone would be much if any benefit.

  2. It would be dangerous if someone on your local network has a computer that is compromised or Whonix-Gateway was compromised. Other than that, having someone on your network simply using their browser would not add undue risk.

  3. No real difference. Either would be OK.

3

I mostly agree with 0brand, but we note in the “Do Not” wiki entry:

http://kkkkkkkkkk63ava6.onion/wiki/DoNot

Do not connect to same destination at the same time of the day or night. Try to vary connection times.

That is one of the many recommendations from the Anonymous group. That behaviour simply narrows the anonymity set, since most people would be doing stuff in the evening, or after work. So, if I can see that certain activities of an anonymous handle is always between time X and Y, then I can reasonably assume the timezone.

While that information may be useless in isolation, when combined with other bits and pieces the user might let slip over time with a handle they haven’t changed for some time, it might just be enough to de-anonymize them.

2 Likes
4

Not really. With Tor’s current network size of 2 million users and its global nature you shouldn’t worry about this.

I will assume their traffic doesn’t go through your Whonix Gateway. So no it has no effect.

The fact that they don’t know what you are doing over Tor has no effect on what clearnet traffic you send out in the open.

1 Like
5

Tips on Remaining Anonymous

1 Like
6

Since the OP didn’t explain clearly what scenarios they meant I took it to mean browsing in general and not the case where they visit the exact same site at the same time.

EDIT:
Though I guess you can include third party tracking servers under this banner too but its unclear how revealing that is (research needed). If this has an effect then it severly limits multi-VM OS usability where one runs a clearnet domain alongside Whonix?

1 Like