Hide my IP, Tor and your own proxies

6 min · Private browsing in Minda

Websites normally see the internet address your connection uses. Hide my IP sends your browsing through Tor, so sites see a Tor address instead of yours. It is built into Minda.

Turning it on

Press the onion button in the toolbar to turn it on or off. Its menu shows the connection and lets you pick Tor or a free proxy location.

The first time you turn it on, Minda downloads the Tor program once, checks it against a pinned SHA-256 fingerprint, then connects. Pages load more slowly through Tor because your traffic takes a longer route.

Tor is a trademark of The Tor Project, Inc. Minda is not affiliated with or endorsed by it.

Where it is available

Built-in Tor works on Windows x64 and Linux x64. It is not available on macOS or on Windows on ARM, where the switch connects to a free proxy instead. Read the next sections before you rely on it there.

What it covers, and what it doesn't

Hide my IP covers your browsing only. Some of Minda's own traffic is reached directly, so those services see your real address:

Minda's own downloads, such as filter lists, the Tor program and extensions
The AI providers you use
The Chrome Web Store

Requests to Minda's own server follow your computer's proxy settings and never go through Hide my IP.

A free proxy is a stranger's server

A location you pick from the Hide my IP menu connects through a free public proxy whose operator is unknown. That operator sees the name of every site you open, and any plain http page in full. Minda asks first ("Use this proxy" or "Keep Tor"), and the switch itself means Tor.

Your own proxies

If you run or rent a proxy, add it under Settings → Privacy & security → Proxy servers. It can carry the sites you list, every site, or every page of one workspace. HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5 proxies work, and the proxy's sign-in is kept encrypted on your computer.

A site sent to a proxy never falls back to a direct connection if the proxy fails. A failure shows up as a page that does not load, not as a quiet leak.

Whoever runs the proxy sees the host names it carries, so choose one you trust.

Words to avoid

Don't call this anonymous or untraceable. It changes the address sites see for your browsing and nothing more. You are still signed in to whatever you sign in to, and a site can still recognize you by what you do on it.