Anonymity and privacy have ceased to exist on the Web. It's true that an IP number isn't personal identification, but with the huge amount of information users share minute by minute, you don't need to make a great effort to know something about someone. At the same time, there are applications and services that don't do much to offer anonymity unless you apply a deep solution. Whonix is an operating system that uses the Tor network and virtualization to provide an isolated, completely anonymized environment, in which virtually no application or service can avoid being torified.
Any freeware capable of monitoring open connections can help you put it in perspective: I must have about 40 or 50 connections, and some of them are sharing my IP address and approximate location, something that is probably also happening on your computer, smartphone, or tablet this very moment. In general, you don't have direct control over which connections are created, maintained, or terminated, what they can share, and what they can't.
The equation becomes even more complicated when insecure applications appear, or the ever-present operating system updates. There are several options to anonymize traffic, and the Tor network is one of them, but instead of using a simple browser, why not make the entire operating system and every requested connection go through that network?
How Whonix Works
That is the goal of Whonix, an operating system previously known as TorBOX. Whonix is based on Debian, VirtualBox, and the Tor network. What's the idea? Whonix is composed of two virtual environments: one that exclusively runs Tor and acts as a gateway, while the other has Debian installed under a completely isolated network. The only way for this second environment to reach the Web is through the Tor gateway, effectively anonymizing every connection requested by the user or by any application that doesn't take the necessary precautions to protect user privacy.
The theory behind Whonix is very good; however, there are some details to consider. The most important is probably that, by depending on a virtualization scheme, the maximum level of security Whonix can achieve is automatically tied to both the security of the native environment and the security of the virtualizer itself (assuming VirtualBox is a “perfect barrier” is, after all, a mistake). Windows and Mac via VirtualBox, Linux via VirtualBox or KVM, or Qubes OS as a third option. For beginners, it's recommended to limit everything to VirtualBox; it's the fastest and simplest.
Technically, Whonix can be installed on two different computers, which makes it more secure but tends to increase the complexity of its deployment. Whonix is under constant and active development. If you want to give it a try, you should know that you have a download of about 1.6 GB ahead, between operating system and gateway (both unified under the same .ova in the VirtualBox version).
