Two big pieces of news are out this week for the privacy minded users of Tor who would like to surf anonymously to keep from the prying eyes of government – first off is a new iPad browser called Covert Browser which sells for $2.99. It is no frills, no Google search bar or bookmarks but you can switch from Tor servers in various locations with a simple drop down list. The list further includes flags so you know which country they are in and server bandwidth speeds are included as well.

Browsing Disney.IN and seeing a list of TOR servers on the right hand side of the screen (click to enlarge image)

Interestingly there is no way to clear the browser’s memory of recent pages – you have to physically shut the browser down by double clicking the home button and then clicking on the minus sign to close the app. I found the browser useful for tracking web speed in various countries as well as seeing which local ads run where. Many of the servers you can choose from are slow and the app benefits from being closed and restarted from time to time to get it to work properly.

Other big news has to do with Tor in the cloud running on the Amazon EC2 network on a free-tier VM. If you do not qualify for free use it will cost $30/month.

All in all a great week for the privacy minded but be aware that there is at least one instance where the Tor network was hacked – in this case child porn users where tracked and their IP addresses released by Anonymous.

Hat tip: Slashdot