Learn what Tor can do to protect your privacy and anonymity.TorWhat Tor will do
The Tor Browser uses the Tor network to protect your privacy
and anonymity. Using the Tor network has two
main properties:
The Internet access provider will not be able to learn the sites
being visited and will not be able to monitor the content of
the communication.
The sites will see a connection coming from the Tor network and will not learn
the actual Internet connection used to visit them.
On top of that, the Tor Browser is designed
to minimize the ability of websites to fingerprint the browser.
The Tor Browser does not keep any browsing history. Cookies
are only valid for a single session: until the Tor
Browser is exited or a New Identity
is requested.
What Tor will <em>not</em> do
Tor and the Tor
Browser will protect your privacy and anonymity only if used
appropriately.
Tor will not encrypt the whole
communication. What is sent to the Tor
network is what leaves the Tor network.
For web browsing, this means that any confidential information
should be sent using the HTTPS protocol.
If you give a website identifying information (e.g. a name, a
login), you will no longer be an anonymous visitor of this
website.
If you transfer files, they can contain identifying information in their
metadata, like the camera serial number.
Only connections made through the Tor
Browser will go through the Tor
network. Unless specific steps are taken, other applications on your
computer will continue to do direct Internet connections and can
reveal your location.
If loosing control over some information might have problematic
consequences, it is sometimes better to leave it off computers entirely.
How Tor works
Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows you to improve your
privacy and security on the Internet. Tor works by sending your
traffic through three random servers (also known as relays)
in the Tor network, before the traffic is sent out onto the public
Internet
The image above illustrates a user browsing to different websites
over Tor. The green monitors represent relays in the Tor network,
while the three keys represent the layers of encryption between the
user and each relay.
Tor and HTTPS
The following visualization helps understanding what data are visible to
eavesdroppers with or without the Tor Browser
and when encrypted connections (HTTPS) or not:
Click the Tor button to see what data is visible to
eavesdroppers when you're using Tor. The button will turn green to
indicate that Tor is on.
Click the HTTPS button to see what data is visible to
eavesdroppers when you're using HTTPS. The button will turn green to
indicate that HTTPS is on.
When both buttons are green, you see the data that is visible to
eavesdroppers when you are using both tools.
When both buttons are grey, you see the data that is visible
to eavesdroppers when you don't use either tool.
Potentially visible data
<xi:include href="media/tor-and-https.svg" parse="xml"
xpointer="xpointer(//*[@id='string-site']/text())">
<xi:fallback>site.com</xi:fallback>
</xi:include>