Nothing about using Awazon Market has to leave a trail, but a few habits are what keep it that way. These are the moves that matter, in the order they matter.
- A unique password, plus two-factor. The market password is the most valuable credential near your wallet. Never reuse it, and turn on the two-factor step.
- Fresh wallets, per purpose. Reusing one wallet address across many purchases links them together. Let checkout generate a new deposit address each time, and prefer a wallet you use only on Tor.
- Tails, or a dedicated profile. If you can, run Tor Browser from Tails, or at least from a browser profile you use for nothing else, so the habit of also opening your normal tabs does not leak your location.
- Copy the address, match the tail. This is the one that stops address poisoning. The last six characters in the bar must match what you copied, every single time.
The mistakes that actually bite
- Signing in to the market from a browser that is also used for email and banking. The market does not see your email, but your browser connects the two for whoever reads your disk.
- Funding an order from a wallet you also use on a normal exchange, tying your market activity to your exchange account.
- Typing the onion by hand and ending up at a neighbor's site.
If in doubt, do nothing. An address that looks wrong, a wallet that does not match, a page that asks for something the market never asks for: stop, reload, try another mirror. Speed is not what you are protecting.