Tails: A Live Operating System

When I’m away from home with only my laptop at hand, I’ll fire it up from a USB stick loaded with TAILS. Booting into TAILS I can feel secure surfing clearnet, the deep web, and the dark web without being tracked or spied upon.

TAILS (The Amnesiac Incognito Live System), is a live operating system based on Debian, (the ‘universal’ operating system), with emphasis on internet anonymity and privacy. Under TAILS I have the ability to encrypt both my emails and chats, and can surf clear and hidden networks via the TOR browser; circumventing surveillance. While TAILS can boot from a CD, SD drive, or a USB stick, I personally only use it on a USB stick as a convenience when away from home or on a PC other than my own. Another nice feature TAILS employs is the provision of a persistent storage area that will hold any data on the drive, after the system is shut down. This brings us to the crux of using TAILS, the amnesiac part. When TAILS is shut down, it wipes the memory of the system it was booted to and after the drive is removed leaves no trace of your ever using that PC.

The only drawback I can think of using TAILS is that it inherits the issue of the TOR exit node, which leaves the small possibility of the exit node computer to spy upon you. You can not use a VPN while booted to TAILS.

For me, TAILS is a great way to do my internet work pretty much undetected. I don’t use it on my home, main desktop, though it’s perfectly fine to do so; it’s just my personal preference not to. Safe surfing!