Tails (an acronym for the Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a fully-functioning Linux Operating System designed to protect privacy while offering the best security possible. When used properly, Tails also offers the user anonymity online. All traffic is encrypted and sent through the Tor network. This means that your IP address is spoofed, your MAC addresses are spoofed, your traffic (all of it) is encrypted, and all of your traffic is routed through a series of Tor nodes before being dropped onto the surface web. For a better undestanding, let's take the Tails acronym apart:
- Amnesic:
Tails runs from a USB stick instead of being installed on your computer. This means that your computer (or whatever computer you run Tails from) is not altered and does not remember running Tails. Tails also does not remember the compuetr it ran from. It is completely amnesic (except for files and data you specifically tell it to remember).
- Incognito
Tails routes ALL traffic through the Tor network, so unless you do something on the Internet to identify yourself (such as signing into an account associated with your real identity), you are completely anonymous on the web. When you power off or remove the USB stick, Tails removes all traces from the host compuer. Tails keeps you incognito.
- Live System
Tails runs ONLY from the USB stick and runs on your computer in RAM. It was originally designed by the Navy to allow intelligence operatives a secure and anonymous way to access the Internet while in dangerous places so they could communicate with superiors without being able to be monitored. It makes no changes to the host compuer and leaves no trace of having been used. The RAM is wiped of all evidence once the Tails USB stick is removed.
This is the very same Operating System Ed Snowden used to communicate with journalists when he leaked information about NSA surveillance programs. Snowden knew that if he were discovered, he would be arrested or killed. As an architect of the Surveillance State, Snowden understood the principles involved in how the Surveillance State conducts surveillance and he knew that Tails circumvents that surveilance.
The Tails website desrcibes Tails as "a portable operating systemthat protects against surveillance and censorship." Tails is an Open Source Operating System, so all source code is publicly available and many security experts regularly continue to examine and audit the code to verify that it does what it says it does and nothing else. Tails contains several important features to protect privacy and security and it contains nothing that would pose a threat.
It is available as a free download from the Tails website, but there is a catch: The NSA has called Tails a "com-sec" (communications security) tool advocated by "extremists" and NSA slides released by Snowden show that the NSA starts paying special attention to anyone who downloads Tails.
If you feel that you can obtain a download and follow the instructions on the Tails site to install Tails to a USB stick, we welcome you to do so. But for those who prefer to get Tails without any of that hassle, we offer Tails on a high-quality 64GB USB 3.0 stick make of professional-grade alunimum.
Domestic shipping within the United States is included in the price of the Tails USB stick.
Instructions for using Tails can be found here.