Tor is an anonymity network that encrypts your data and hides your IP by bouncing your requests through a multi-layered proxy, making it impossible to trace. It also comes standard with several privacy tools that are stronger than the default Firefox ones. It’s otherwise built on Firefox, so it’s the same but more secure
Tor’s proxies and privacy settings can break some websites or get blocked entirely, so it’s good to have Firefox on standby when problems come up. But if you can stand a couple tech hiccups, definitely go with Tor
also an important note that "impossible to trace" is true but "completely hides information" is not.
Basically if someone is watching the point your computer sends from, or the server that receives your information, they have that information bc by then it's unencrypted.
A bad actor watching your entry node can know who you are, but not what you’re doing (what data you’re sending and where). A bad actor watching your exit node can know what you’re doing, but not who you are. The point of Tor is that there’s no way for anyone to know both at the same time, and both “Pops is browsing the internet through Tor” and “somebody somewhere in the world is visiting super secret antifa websites” are effectively useless information on their own
The exception is onion services, which never leave the Tor network at all. Those connections are impossible to spy on, since the data never goes over a public channel while unencrypted. This is what makes up the “deep web,” which is how people are able to do stuff like order hits online without being caught (because another effect of onion services is it anonymizes the website too) - but despite the reputation, most of the deep web is completely harmless, and a lot of it is just mirrors of clearnet sites like DuckDuckGo, Facebook, and news sites like the New York Times (since onion services are useful for whistleblowers who want to remain anonymous). The newest version of Tor Browser actually has a feature that recommends or redirects to the .onion mirror of any site you visit if one is known
Be wary of ads on Tor. They can be used to identify people. They can play unique ultrasonic tones (meaning we can’t hear them) which are then picked up by apps on your phone (which don’t need permissions to access your microphone). This allows advertisers to identify who is in the room and using the computer. We don’t know every app or company that utilizes this, although it’s mostly done for targeted marketing. It can be used to identify even anonymous Tor users though. I’d recommend putting the phone in a different room if you’re worried.
Beware of ads that use inaudible sound to link your phone, TV, tablet, and PC Privacy advocates warn feds about surreptitious cross-device tracking. Ars TechnicauBlock Origin is the one extension you should have running on Tor. It’s included by default in Tails so it’s 1. considered safe by a trustworthy source and 2. a lot less likely to be used to identify you since a sizeable userbase is already using it
You should always be using adblockers anyway. Being exposed to ads at all is harmful