What is Tor?
Tor (The Onion Router) is an open-source software that bounces Internet traffic through a worldwide network consisting of almost million relays in order to hide user's location and protect him against surveillance or traffic analysis. Tor makes more difficult to trace Internet activity: websites visits, online posts, instant messages and other communication forms.
Who created Tor?
The idea of onion routing was created in 1995 at the U.S. Naval Research Lab by David Goldschlag, Mike Reed and Paul Syverson in effect of a research to find a way to create Internet connections that don't reveal who is talking to whom. The reason was to protect US intelligence communications online.
In early 2000s, Roger Dingledine (MIT graduate) with Paul Syverson began working on the onion routing project created at Naval Research Lab. To distinguish their work from other efforts, they named the project Tor (The Onion Routing).
Tor was oficially deployed in October 2002 and its source code was released under a free and open software license. In December 2006 computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson and five others founded The Tor Project research-education nonprofit organization that is responsible for maintaining the software.
Tor is supported by US government, many NGOs, private foundations, research institutions, private companies and over 20,000 personal donations from people from around the World.
How to access Tor?
The easiest way to access Tor is to install Tor Browser. It is a modified Mozilla Firefox browser with multiple privacy improvements. It is available for Windows, Linux, OS X and Android.
How does Tor work?
Your traffic passes through at least 3 different servers before sending it on to the destination. Because each of the 3 nodes has separate layer of encryption, nobody watching your connection can read what you are sending into Tor network.
The nodes are called:
- Guard node
- Knows your IP address but doesn't know where you are connecting to
- Middle node
- Immediate layer between guard node and exit node.
- Exit node
- Knows the destination but doesn't know who you are.
Is Tor legal?
In most countries using Tor is legal. However, some countries censor Internet and the only way to access Tor is to use a bridge. In this case select "Tor is censored in my country" in connection wizard after starting Tor Browser. You may also set up bridge in settings.
What is darknet?
Darknet is a part of Internet that can be accessed only with Tor. Their domain names finish with .onion. Most darknet sites are legal and are used by activists, journalists and news organisations. However, many hidden services contain illegal stuff. There are multiple markets where you can buy drugs, guns, counterfeit money, cloned cards, hacked accounts, etc.