Nibba group: What is Tor?

What is Tor?

Tor stands for “the onion router” and is a method for anonymizing data. It actually refers to two things—the network and the browser. The network constitutes a large number of volunteer computers that run a specialized server application. The browser enables users to both hide their identity behind anonymizing software and access special services only available through the Tor browser. Run by activists who are dedicated to privacy and anonymity, the Tor Project is a non-profit organization that supports the network and develops the software. The technology upon which Tor is based (.onion) was developed back in the 1990s by the U.S. Navy in order to protect intelligence communications. Today, the U.S. government, specifically the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, remains a major funder of the Tor Project.

How does it work?

The technology behind Tor is open source, which means that programmers and experts can see into the source code. Unlike some virtual private networks (VPN), Tor does not have a commercial stake in collecting user data and they are committed to remaining non-profit. More than 17.5 million downloads of Tor have been recorded to date. 3 Despite its anonymizing mechanics, Tor is certainly not completely untraceable. For example, if you access sites on the surface web from the Tor browser, you can still be identified. And due to its layered, anonymizing technology, the Tor browser is a little slower than your normal connection.

Who uses Tor?

The Tor Project claims that more than 2 million people use Tor daily. But despite the reputation of the dark web as being a haven for criminal activity, a recent survey concluded that only 45% of .onion sites appear to host illegal activity. 4 And it’s not as vast as some people have made it out to be. While the surface web hosts billions of different sites, it is estimated that Tor hidden sites number only in the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands but no more. Therefore, we can conclude that its reputation for being a place where criminals go to hang out is not entirely accurate—or at the very least, not a complete picture of the situation. In fact, many use Tor for perfectly legitimate purposes. Activists from countries that suppress freedoms, journalists looking to protect their sources and even law enforcement and the military use Tor to establish secure communications, avoid surveillance and get around censorship. In countries where Facebook is banned, Tor has even launched a hidden version of the site where more than 1 million users can access the social networking platform. Many also think that merely downloading the Tor browser is a sign of criminal activity. While law enforcement and intelligence authorities may monitor Tor downloads, it is not illegal to do so, although some countries do view it as a signal of possible nefarious activity.