Technically there are two ways of using OnionCoffee: For already existing applications OnionCoffee can be used as a local proxy. Another main use of OnionCoffee is as an anonymity service library for new applications.

As a proxy OnionCoffee sits between standard network-applications like a webbrowser and the TOR-network. It reroutes all communication traffic of configured applications through the nonymous network. We have implemented a local Socks and an HTTP Proxy; TOR is suited for both. In the folowwing sections you find a sample scenario and detailed configuration information for widely-used webbrowsers.

As an application library OnionCoffee supplies a special Socks interface in the form of a Java class. Scenarios and information for application programmers can be found in the following sections.

Sample scenarios

• Anonymous Webbrowsing: There are many kinds of sensitive information accessible via the HTTP protocol (World Wide Web). As an example: Health topics are covered by many journals and databases which are publicly accessible on several HTTP-Servers. Users have a valid interest in keeping their reading preferences in certain topics private because third parties could come to assumptions about their health situation otherwise. Other kinds of sensitive information include servers cotaining opinions about an controversial political topic.
• Indirect use as a library: