What Is Tor? Who Uses It, How to Use It, Legality, and Purpose (2024)

What Is Tor?

Tor—short for the Onion Routing project—is an open-source privacy network that enables anonymous web browsing. The worldwide Tor computer network uses secure, encrypted protocols to ensure that users' online privacy is protected. Tor users' digital data and communications are shielded using a layered approach that resembles the nested layers of an onion.

The Tor technology was initially developed and solely used by the U.S. Navy to protect sensitive government communications. The network was later made available to the public as an open-source platform, meaning that Tor's source code is accessible to everyone. Tor is upgraded and enhanced by volunteer developers in the Tor network.

How to Use Tor

To access the privacy and security features of Tor, you need to install the Tor browser. For that, you need an Internet connection and a compatible operating system.

Follow the instructions to install the browser just like you would any other application on your device. You can then watch tutorials within Tor that explain how to navigate the browser.

Tor lets users customize their privacy settings, although the standard settings are considered to be sufficiently private for average users. Customizing Tor to be the most secure can affect your ability to use certain websites.

How Tor Works

Though knowing how the Tor network works is not necessary to use its browser, you may be curious about how Tor operates.

Tor uses an onion-style routing technique for transmitting data. When you use the Tor browser to digitally communicate or access a website, the Tor network does not directly connect your computer to that website. Instead, the traffic from your browser is intercepted by Tor and bounced to a random number of other Tor users’ computers before passing the request to its final website destination.

This same process is reversed to enable the destination website to communicate with you, the Tor user. The encryption process that the Tor software uses obscures users' identities, requests, communications, and transactions while still enabling them to use the Internet as they normally would.

Who Uses Tor and Why

Though Tor is best known for its illicit uses, many Internet users can have different, valid reasons for accessing the Internet via Tor.

Let's take a closer look at who uses Tor and why:

• Government agencies: Tor can protect and securely share sensitive government information.
• For-profit enterprises: Companies that use Tor can benefit from increased data privacy and security.
• Illicit organizations: Criminals sometimes use Tor to shield their online activity.
• Private individuals: Anyone wishing for more online privacy and better cybersecurity can benefit from the Tor browser. Journalists, activists, and people facing censorship may choose to interact online via Tor.
  

Sites like Silk Road, a Tor-hosted underground marketplace known for facilitating illegal drug sales, garner the most headlines for Tor. But many Tor users have legitimate reasons for wanting to privately browse the web, especially in an era when cybercrime is on the rise.