Imagine an NGO discovering one of their members frequently logs into the members-only forum of a military base, or a large corporation noticing that an employee is frequently opening up the website of a government agency. It would be very easy to detect who was communicating with servers operated by U.S. military was also aware that the way the internet was constructed posed serious threats to the identity and security of their sources. No longer would spies need bulky radios, or have to decipher messages in newspapers to receive information. As this information became increasingly digital in the 1990s, the agencies realized how valuable it would be for their assets to communicate online. The United States armed forces have always relied on a vast network of spies around the globe to gather information. The unlikely history of Tor Tor: The early years Not only will it hide your browsing data from your VPN company, it will also hide your home IP address from the Tor entry node. Generally, the Tor Browser will not anonymize all your web traffic, which is why it is commonly run alongside a VPN.Ĭonnecting to Tor through a VPN connection is a great way to maintain your internet privacy and security. Using the Tor Browser also allows you access to the dark web, and run a “hidden service” anonymously. Similar to a VPN, you can use Tor to hide your IP address and anonymize your internet traffic. Tor currently has about two million daily users worldwide, most of them originating from the United States, Germany, and Russia. Similarly, Tor is important for law enforcement as it allows for covert operations and investigations online. Secure communication is essential in whistleblowing cases, like the Edward Snowden revelations. Journalists and their sources rely on it to communicate securely and anonymously, without fear of government interference. Tor is short for “ The Onion Router.” It is often viewed negatively by the press and law enforcement agencies, but it has many positive benefits. In this guide, we will explain the origins of Tor, how the network works, how you can make use of it and contribute to it, and the many other little things Tor enables us to do online. In internal documents, the NSA has even referred to Tor as “the king of high-secure, low-latency internet anonymity.” The Tor Browser can significantly increase a user’s privacy and anonymity online. Tor (originally called The Onion Router because it layers your traffic like an onion) is a free network of servers, or “nodes,” that randomly route internet traffic between each other in order to obfuscate the origin of the data.

Tor network meaning