Tor has many potential exposures that can reveal your identity to the public.Īlthough your IP is hidden and data encrypted as it moves through the Tor system, the point that it leaves the Tor network it becomes unencrypted traffic. The receiver will see the communication as traffic coming from the Tor exit node instead of the client's actual address. The client's IP address of the sender and recipient are not clear text so no matter what hop your client takes, no one can eavesdrop along the route to decipher the traffic. Not only does Tor allow for hidden services such as a typical censored website but since Tor relay servers are kept secret, it allows users to bypass to censored websites by certain governments. Tor encrypts the client's network traffic and routes traffic through the network of relays run by users that volunteer their node and bandwidth. Tor allows a client to disguise it's clients address, surfing profile and other system actions from observation and investigations of activity by dividing recognizable proof and tracking. As a client, all you need to do is install the software and run the modified Firefox browser and you are ready to surf the internet anonymously. Anyone can add their nodes to the Tor network, whether a client, a relay server, or exit node. In essence, Tor is nothing more than a proxy server system.

It is by far one of the best tools to allow whistle blowers and activists worldwide to spread certain information without being exposed by their IP address. Tor is free software that can be run cross-platform and is currently being used by over 36 million users around the world allowing to bypass government dragnet and blocking of certain websites deemed threatening to their status quo. As of 2012, over 80% of the Tor Project is funded by the United States Government.

Tor has been financially supported Electronic Frontier Foundation and under a 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization. Navel Research Laboratory, under the guise of DARPA. Tor started out as 'The Onion Router' when it was created by the U.S.

Onion tor project