The Privacy Series: the Tor anonymity network and browser

5 min readNov 9, 2020

Source: “Anonymity Networks: VPNs, Tor, and I2P” @ restoreprivacy.com

Anonymous browsing through the Tor Network is one of the most controversial discussions I ever had, usually with arrogant and pedant people who truly believe they are tech experts just because they did a 2-weeks course to learn something when they were younger.

What are people’s Digital Rights?

Source: “United Nations passes a resolution condemning Internet Shutdowns | SFLC.in” @ sflc.in

When the Internet was presented to the world, it was announced with a set of principles that (theoretically) everyone was supposed to follow. These principles are known as Digital Rights.

Digital Rights are human and legal rights that allow individuals to access, use, create, and publish digital media (also known as Freedom of information) or to access and use computers, other electronic devices, and telecommunications networks.

The Digital Rights concept is particularly related to the protection and realization of existing rights, such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression (in the context of digital technologies, especially the Internet), and the laws of several countries recognize the right to Internet access.

However, some of these countries (and also other countries) are restricting access to certain information, content or services, meaning that corporations and governments violate people’s Digital Rights.

What is the Tor Project?

Source: “Linux Tor browser indirme ve kurma/Gnu/Lİnux kulübü” @ turkhackteam.org

The Tor Project Inc is a research and education non-profit organisation based in Massachusetts. Its primary goal is to maintain the Tor anonymity network. The existence reason for Tor is to defend yourself, to protect yourself against tracking, surveillance, and censorship.

The Tor Project includes several tools that are available for anyone to use, aiming to ensure the rights of privacy and freedom are not violated by any ISP (Internet Service Provider) or any government, through any [not-so-legal] law or agreement that makes censorship a “legal” option when it’s convenient for them.

Although there are several tools available, the most common, known and used one is the Tor Browser.

What is the Tor Browser?

Source: “New Release of Tor Browser 8.0” @ tenforums.com

The Tor Browser is an Internet browser based on the open-source of Mozilla Firefox. Still, it is rebuilt with a set of new built-in components to use the Tor Network and ensure the anonymity of any user when browsing on the Internet.

The goals of these built-in components are:

Blocking trackers: Tor Browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can’t follow you.
Defend against surveillance: Tor Browser prevents someone watching your connection from knowing what websites you visit.
Resist fingerprints: Tor Browser aims to make all users look the same, making it difficult for you to be fingerprinted.
Multi-layered encryption: Your traffic is relayed and encrypted three times as it passes over the Tor network, comprised of thousands of volunteer-run servers known as Tor Relays.
Browse freely: With Tor Browser, you are free to access sites your home network may have blocked.

Why is Tor so controversial?

Source: “Everything About Tor: What is Tor? How Tor Works?” @ fossbytes.com

Tor Browser establishes a P2P (peer-to-peer) connection through the Tor Network (and the Tor Relays) through a built-in VPN component, meaning that the encryption starts in your browser and, thus, makes the sniffing and tracking of your browser activity a nightmare for anyone that wants to know what you’re doing.

You might think “This is good, it protects my rights!”, and yes, you are right. But for businesses who deal with legal, financial or sensitive information, or for larger corporations that have a set of security policies in place to ensure all computers are operating under the same rules that their IT department has set, using a Network based on volunteer-run servers imply a security risk, as it’s impossible for them to know if any online threat is infecting you and, thus, the whole network that the company uses might be affected by a security threat.

Your rights end where mine begin

So, if you (as an individual) have the right to use the most appropriate tools according to your needs and desires when you are using your devices, then the business for what you are working for has the right to deny your request of installing and using Tor Browser or any other tool offered by the Tor Project on the company’s computer, as its usage means they can’t guarantee the security of the data the business relies on to offer its commercial activity.

Tips and tricks to share

Source: “Tips and tricks for getting up after a fall — FSHD Society” @ fshsociety.org

I’ve been using the Tor Browser on Windows, Linux and Mac devices for a few years, and I felt more secure when browsing as I knew it was much harder for anyone to track me. However, there are a set of points that you must bear in mind when browsing through the Tor Network:

It’s not mandatory using the Tor Browser. If you know how to set up the Tor Network natively with your operating system (usually *NIX-like), you can do so, meaning that any communications from your computer will use it, not just limited to the Internet browser.
Other Browsers offer the Tor Network too. One of the best examples is Brave Software, another web browser that I wrote an article a few days ago. Brave browser (based on Chromium instead of Firefox) doesn’t stop on preventing any tracking system from tracking you but also includes the Tor Network as a built-in component that you can enable whenever you want, so you can use it too to browse anonymously.
It would be best if you avoided the Browser extensions. Tor Browser is a minimalist browser based on Firefox which includes the built-in components to use the Tor Network, and it means there are no extensions installed by default. The usage of extensions is allowed as Tor Browser doesn’t prevent you from using them. However, the Tor Project doesn’t recommend the usage of browser extensions as might cause a break of your privacy. Any browser extension can include its own tracking system that collects information on your computer without relying on the Interner or any other network, meaning that the Tor Network cannot protect you against browser extensions.

Resources

Images

Further Wikipedia reading

The Tor Project