Is Tor the answer to all those Internet privacy needs? In a time where online surveillance is very much in the spotlight, encrypted networks like Tor have increased in popularity. But is it more of a problem to its users as it is a solution? Caroline Black discusses…
For those who don’t know, Tor is a browser and network originally developed by the United States to allow its agents in the field to communicate online without the fear of being traced or watched. It has been adapted for common use and works by relaying information requests through a series of nodes so that the IP address of the sender is hidden. Try to think of it as shooting a laser through a house of mirrors so that it eventually makes it out the other side.
Tor has often been heralded by the online community as a way of salvation from the governments and the organizations of the world suppressing our freedom via tactics of Orwellian scale and nature. It is the Alpha and the Omega of online privacy, and it is the only way to stay safe online.
In truth, it is much more complicated than that. Tor certainly has its uses, but with this may come a plethora of problems that will bring unwanted frustration and even danger to the user. Tor is not a cure-all, nor is it for the inexperienced. In truth, basic internet users won’t have too much of a reason to touch the network.
‘Tor Browser Bundle’ by Linux Screenshots under CC BY 2.0
Here are a few things worth consideration:
Tor isn’t the only option for privacy. Many people prefer to use proxy servers to mask their IP addresses so that they don’t subject themselves to the disadvantages of Tor and the red flags it sends up to anyone watching. There are plenty of disadvantages to proxies, such as their unreliability and the high rate of malware among them (you will need to do some serious research to find the right one).
Virtual Private Networks, on the other hand, are very much like a proxy in that they use an offsite server to mask your IP address. The difference is that they are usually are more reliable than the average proxy. Most importantly, they use encryption on the connections so that no one will be able to take a look at what you are doing online, regardless of the network you are using.
This provides a greater total level of protection than Tor. The only disadvantage is the price, albeit only a few dollars a month for most.
Governments dislike Tor. They find it to be a threat to their power and it provides a way for those inclined to do so to conduct illegal activities. Many may not put citizen privacy at the top of a list of priorities, and online surveillance is far too common in our time. This makes the need for Tor all the greater, one may assume. But the situation is more complicated. Even if governments don’t know what you are doing while you are using Tor, tools such as XKeyscore allow them to know that you have downloaded Tor and are using it.
This puts an extra set of eyes on you when you aren’t using it. Some countries will even prosecute Tor users. Sometimes it seems that it may be better to simply hide in the crowd.
Using Tor doesn’t absolutely guarantee anything in modern times either. Governments can set up end nodes themselves (hundreds of them) and monitor all of the traffic that passes through them. If they analyze the data, they can match up your activity to that of the end node. Alternatively perhaps some information passes through that immediately gives up who you are. If your government wants to know, they can find out what you are up to with only a little difficulty.
Tor will make your internet slower and make it impossible to do some of the important things you need to take care of online. There is no way around this. The reason is that the extra time taken to bounce your signal around the network will result in a slowdown for you.
The only way that you will be able to use the internet in the first place to any reasonable degree will be to have a strong internet connection in the first place. Yet many hopeful users of Tor are the oppressed or those in disadvantageous situations, often without access to good internet infrastructure. This results in a major problem for Tor and the need for any potential user to reconsider. Even if you have a good connection, it will be affected by the network.
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Tor was not originally designed for the use of the average computer user. While the creators and programmers of the current version of Tor did a good job adapting the originally military technology, the fact of the matter remains that the internet is not built around Tor the same way it is built around other browsers.
This means that many of the features and options you expect in other browsers simply won’t be available or will be dramatically different when using the Tor browser. Some will find this debilitating, and others will find it unacceptable.
Compatibility issues also plague the acclaimed privacy of the network. While the browser might be designed to hide your IP address, your other personal and identifying information can still be captured via cookies and scripts that desire (or require) such information. It doesn’t matter how well your IP address is hidden if you are (unintentionally) giving websites your name and address. There are settings that can be adjusted in the Tor browser, but they might not be up to par with the current threats, and they might not be all-encompassing enough to trust your entire online life to.
Do you have any experience with Tor you would like to talk about? Have you found any other alternatives to the network that work just as well? Have you found any other problems with Tor not mentioned above? Leave a comment and join the conversation.
