It was originally designed to protect the communications of US intelligence agencies across the Internet. The concepts underpinning Tor - namely, onion routing - were developed by the United States government in the 1990s. Websites may refuse to function when you’re using Tor-generally to prevent anonymous spam and abuse. Some governments and network operators can prevent Tor from functioning.Īlthough using Tor is legal in and of itself, using Tor may make your activity appear suspicious. It’s possible to deanonymize your browsing by making a simple mistake. Tor is very slow compared to VPNs and regular web browsing, so downloading large files is usually not feasible. You can access websites without your internet service provider being aware of your browsing history. If you use Tor correctly, your real IP address cannot be determined by the websites you visit. That said, it also presents some challenges. Using Tor offers a number of privacy and anonymity protections over directly connecting to a website. The primary uses of Tor are the following:Īccessing Tor hidden services (.onion sites)

Additionally, it also hides what you're doing from your Internet Service Provider. The main difference is that when you browse the web with Tor, your real IP address and other system information is obscured from the websites and services you're visiting. Although the process of starting up the browser differs slightly from Chrome or Firefox (Tor must configure a connection to the Tor network before the browser can start), actually browsing the web with Tor is pretty intuitive. Using the Tor Browser is similar to using any other web browser. You’ll learn all about Tor and be ready to use it with confidence, knowing that you won’t make any beginner mistakes that would compromise your anonymity.

Then, we’ll take a look at how it works, how it compares to VPN services, and how to stay safe. In this article, we’ll look at what Tor is and isn’t. At the same time, Tor isn’t perfect, so it can provide a false sense of security if used incorrectly. From human rights activists evading oppressive governments to drug dealers selling through online marketplaces, Tor is a popular way to gain significantly more anonymity than you would normally have online. Tor (formerly an acronym for “The Onion Router”) is often touted as a way to browse the web anonymously.

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