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Using Tails

Tails is a live operating system on a USB stick. It runs in memory, forces all traffic through Tor, and forgets everything at shutdown. It is the strongest ordinary-hardware option for leaving no trace.

Setup in brief

  1. Install Tails to a USB stick from the official Tails site and verify the download.
  2. Boot it and connect to Tor when prompted.
  3. Open Tor Browser inside Tails and paste a verified link.
  4. Optionally enable encrypted Persistent Storage to keep a PGP key and password database between sessions.
Do not forget
Keep your recovery mnemonic on paper, not only in Tails persistence. A lost stick should never mean a lost account.

Last reviewed 2026-07-11.

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