An add-on that lets you browse anonymously

Stealthy is a user-friendly Firefox add-on that lets you visit websites that are restricted based on geographical location.

Stealthy was originally developed to facilitate the dissemination of information during the Arab Spring. Even if your intents aren’t quite as revolutionary, it will allow you to visit sites that you normally can’t because of your location, like Pandora from outside the US or iPlayer from outside the UK. If certain websites are restricted by your country’s government – Twitter or Google, for example – Stealthy might be able to help.

There are a large number of internet proxies out there, but what marks Stealthy out is how user-friendly it is to use. It cuts the technicalities down to a minimum by being a normal add-on installed as usual, and by offering only 3 options. You can generate a US IP address, opt to overcome restrictions in your own country, or even choose a specific country to “pretend” to be from.

Unfortunately, much as we liked the idea, using Stealthy wasn’t always a smooth ride. Although pretending to be from the US worked, we couldn’t use the option to specify a country and there were moments when Stealthy seriously slowed down browsing and made using the internet a slow and laborious process. When you’re using Stealthy, also bear in mind that under certain circumstances, it may be illegal.

Much as we liked the idea, Stealthy didn’t live up to expectations in terms of effectiveness.