Tor should be your internet best friend

Essentials Week spotlights unexpected items that make our daily lives just a little bit better.

Privacy and internet — sounds like the beginning of a joke, right? Contrary to the popular belief, however, the two really can go together. 

Yes, our data (which, to be fair, we often willingly give away to third parties without blinking) can be at the mercy of huge companies which sell it for advertising purposes or the prying eyes of governments as well as hackers. But there are simple, unobtrusive ways of keeping your data and online activities private in all except the most extreme of circumstances. 

And if you’re thinking about improving your online privacy, one of the first services on your list should be Tor. 

Tor, which originally stood for “The Onion Router” (the onion representing Tor’s layered approach to privacy), is one of those services that can be tough to fully understand but are easy to use. Here’s a short version of what you need to know about Tor. 

Every time you open a web browser and type in a website URL, your computer talks to a remote server that hosts that website. Data is sent back and forth and the website appears before your eyes, but that server now likely has a log entry that says you’ve accessed it. The log entry doesn’t exactly have your name and address, but it has data such as your IP address and, possibly, a list of web pages you’ve visited in the past. This data can be used to track you down for whatever reason. 

The Tor Browser

This is where Tor comes into play. Tor is a free service that reroutes internet traffic through a network of computers. When you use Tor, your request to open a webpage goes inside the network, gets bounced around in there, goes out through a randomly selected server, and finally reaches the destination server which delivers the webpage to your browser. This makes it near-impossible for the server on the other end to know who’s really accessing it. 

Here’s the great part about Tor: While you can use it in several ways, there’s an extremely easy and simple way to do it. Just download the free, Firefox-based Tor Browser, fire it up and use it as you would any other browser. It’ll be a little slower and some little things might not work as usual — for example, if the exit node your request came out of is located in Germany the server you’re accessing might serve you a website in German. Also, you’ll likely be filling out a lot of those “are you a robot” security checks. But for the most part, you’ll be able to browse the web normally. 

Believe it or not, that’s (mostly) it. While you probably won’t use Tor to hang on Facebook, if you’re a journalist exploring a sensitive topic, or a dissident in an authoritarian state, it’s an extremely useful tool. 

You might, however, have to change your online habits a little bit. You shouldn’t install other browser plugins in Tor Browser; you shouldn’t use torrents over Tor, and you have to be careful about opening documents downloaded through Tor. For a full list of precautionary measures, go here. 

Wait, that’s it?

It’s almost all of it. The Tor Project also offers free proxy app Orbot as well as Tails, a Linux-based operating system that’s pre-configured for Tor. You can carry it on a USB stick and fire it up on nearly any computer as needed. You can also fine-tune various aspects of the Tor Browser, which has a few other pre-installed tools to keep you safe, including HTTPS Everywhere and NoScript. And, if you’re really into it, you can run a Tor relay to strengthen its network and support the project. But, again, simply installing the Tor Browser and using it whenever you need privacy is the first, and most important, thing you should do. 

There is also another side to Tor, and it’s typically referred to as the darknet. Besides letting you anonymously access the regular internet, Tor’s protocol also allows for creation of websites and other services which reside inside Tor’s network and are hidden from the rest of the internet. Hidden websites which are only available through Tor have the “.onion” suffix, and there are also chat, email and other services which reside on Tor. Most users shouldn’t bother, though — a lot of these sites are black markets for illegal goods and nothing good can come out of going there. There are exceptions; notably, The New York Times is available as an Onion Service and is located at this address: https://www.nytimes3xbfgragh.onion/. Also, some services, like the whistleblower tool SecureDrop or privacy-oriented email provider ProtonMail, can be very useful if you need them. 

Is it legal?

In most countries, including the U.S., yes — and this includes running a Tor relay. In some places, like China or Venezuela, Tor traffic is blocked, and usage is illegal or at least frowned upon. If you’re unsure, you should check the status of Tor on a per-county basis. That might take a little time, as there’s no immediately ready, comprehensive list of where Tor is legal, but you should definitely do it if you’re unsure. 

Of course, this doesn’t make illegal actions which are done through Tor any less illegal. Tor is a tool that protects your privacy and offers a reasonable degree of anonymity, but you should not use it for illegal purposes. 

Is it secure?

Yes, if you’re using it correctly, Tor provides anonymity and privacy in the vast majority of cases. But it’s still possible (though very hard) to track someone who’s using Tor, and it’s been done before. Chances of that actually happening to you are very small, but it’s something to keep in mind. 

Another thing you should know about Tor is that it is not the be all and end all of online privacy. For example, if you access a website through the Tor Browser, your internet service provider (ISP) likely won’t know which website you’ve accessed, but it will know you’ve been using Tor, and it will know exactly when you’ve been using Tor.

One way to add another layer of security is to use a virtual private network (VPN) together with Tor. If you fire up a VPN and then browse with the Tor Browser, your ISP won’t be able to tell you’ve been using Tor. There are disadvantages to this approach, though. While VPN in combination with Tor will keep you safe from the ISP’s (potentially) prying eyes, the VPN itself might know you’re using Tor, and if it’s logging traffic (most VPNs say they don’t, but you can never be a 100% sure), then a subpoena from the authorities to the VPN might be enough to unmask your Tor usage. There’s no perfect solution to this dilemma; it depends on who you trust more, your ISP or your VPN. 

What now?

The beauty of Tor Browser is precisely how easy it is to use — from the user side, it’s just a Firefox with some added features (and some features turned off). 

So the next time you want to surf privately, or want to make sure your browsing will leave zero traces on the computer you’re using, or just feel uneasy about the computer you’re using, just fire up Tor for that extra layer of privacy. Stay safe out there!