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5) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Who uses Tor?"
6) 
7) <div class="main-column">
8) 
9) <h1>Who uses Tor?</h1>
10) <hr />
11) 

12) <p>

13) We're still writing this page; please <a href="<page

14) contact>">send us</a> your fixes, comments, and stories!
15) </p>
16) 
17) <p>

18) Tor provides anonymity: when it succeeds, nobody notices.  This is
19) great for users, but not so good for us, since publishing success
20) stories about how people or organizations are staying anonymous could be
21) counterproductive.
22) As an example, we talked

23) to an FBI officer who explained that he uses Tor every day for his work

24) —but he quickly followed up

25) with a request not to provide details or mention his name.
26) </p>
27) 
28) <p>So while each story below represents actual users we've talked to,
29) we've done our best to anonymize them when appropriate.
30) </p>
31) 
32) <hr />
33) 

34) <h2>People use Tor every day to...</h2>

35) 
36) <ul>

37) <li>...protect their privacy from unscrupulous marketers</li>

38) 
39) <p>Anonymity helps defeat marketing that doesn't have your permissions.
40) There are all kinds of unscrupulous marketing techniques that track your

41) activity

42) to build marketing databases, often selling your private information

43) without your permission.  Tor, used appropriately,
44) helps defeat many of these violations

45) of your privacy.</p>
46) 

47) <li>...protect their children online</li>

48) 
49) <p>&ldquo;I'm proud my mom and dad let me stay alone at home now.&rdquo;
50) You've told your kids they shouldn't share personally identifying
51) information online, but they may be sharing their location simply

52) by not concealing their IP address.  Increasingly, IP

53) addresses can be literally mapped to street locations, and in the US the

54) government is pushing to get this mapping closer and closer to 
55) street addresses.
56) </p>

57) 
58) <li>...research sensitive topics</li>
59) 

60) <p>There's a wealth of information available online.   But perhaps in your 

61) country, access to information on AIDS, birth control, Tibetan culture,

62) or world religions is behind a national firewall.
63) Or perhaps you are worried that if you research a particular set of
64) symptoms, at some later date an insurance company might buy the 
65) logs of the websites you visited and establish that
66) you had suspicions of a pre-existing condition.
67) </p>

68) 

69) <li>...see how the rest of the world lives</li>

70) 

71) <p>Tor allows you to see the World Wide
72) Web from a different perspective.  Want to see Google come up in Polish?
73) If you leave the Tor cloud at a Polish Tor relay, you'll see what

74) Poland sees online.  Want to check the differential pricing offered by
75) an online retailer or wholesaler to folks in another country, compared

76) to the pricing offered to you or your company?  Tor can
77) provide that window to the world.</p>

78) 
79) </ul>
80) 
81) <h2>Journalists use Tor</h2>
82) 
83) <ul>
84) 
85) <li>Reporters without Borders</li>
86) 

87) <p><a href="http://www.rsf.org/">Reporters without Borders</a> advises

88) journalists, sources, bloggers, and dissidents online to use Tor to
89) ensure their privacy.  RSF tracks internet prisoners of conscience and
90) jailed or harmed journalists all over the world.</p>
91) 
92) <li>IBB/Voice of America/Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Asia</li>
93) 

94) <p>The US <a href="http://www.ibb.gov/">International Broadcasting

95) Bureau</a> supports Tor development Internet users in countries

96) that can't get

97) safe access to free media.  Tor not only protects freedom of expression,
98) but preserves the ability of persons behind national firewalls or under
99) the surveillance of repressive regimes to view information that gives
100) a global perspective on democracy, economics, religion, and other vital
101) topics to a full global perspective on culture.</p>
102) 
103) <li>Reporters in sensitive locations</li>
104) 
105) <p>Reporters in sensitive environments can use Tor to be more secure in
106) filing their stories.</p>
107) 
108) <li>sources</li>
109) 
110) <p>Journalists' sources often use Tor to report sensitive information,
111) or to discuss items with journalists from sensitive locations.</p>
112) 
113) <li>whistleblowers</li>
114) 
115) <p>Likewise, whistleblowers use Tor to safely leave tips on governmental
116) and corporate malfeasance.
117) 
118) <li>citizen journalism</li>
119) 

120) <p>Citizen journalists in China and other &ldquo;Internet black

121) holes” use Tor to write about local events and to encourage social
122) change and political reform, more secure that there will not be a knock
123) on their door at midnight.</p>
124) 
125) </ul>
126) 
127) <h2>Human rights workers use Tor</h2>
128) 
129) <p>Reporting human rights violations from within their country of origin
130) is a task for peaceful warriors.  It takes courage and a good eye to risk
131) mitigation.  Human rights activists use Tor to anonymously report from
132) danger zones.  Internationally, labor rights workers use Tor and other
133) forms of online and offline anonymity to organize workers in accordance
134) with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Are they within the law?
135) But, does that mean they are safe?</p>
136) 
137) <ul>
138) 
139) <li>Human Rights Watch</li>
140) 
141) <p>In their report &ldquo;Race to the Bottom: Corporate
142) Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship,&rdquo; a study

143) co-author interviewed Roger Dingledine, Tor project leader,

144) on Tor use.  They cover Tor in the section on how to breach the <a
145) href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/3.htm#_Toc142395820">&ldquo;Great
146) Firewall of China &rdquo;</a></p>
147) 

148) <p><a href="http://hrw.org/doc/?t=internet">Human Rights Watch</a>
149) recommends Tor for human rights workers throughout

150) the globe for &ldquo;secure browsing and communications.&rdquo;</p>
151) 
152) <li>Amnesty International</li>
153) 
154) <p>Tor has consulted and volunteered help to Amnesty International's

155) recent corporate responsibility campaign at
156) <a href="http://irrepressible.info/">http://irrepressible.info/</a>.
157) See also their <a
158) href="http://irrepressible.info/static/pdf/FOE-in-china-2006-lores.pdf">full
159) report</a> on China Internet issues.</p>

160) 
161) <li>Global Voices</li>
162) 
163) <p>Global Voices can't stop recommending Tor throughout their <a

164) href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.globalvoicesonline.org+tor">

165) web site.</a></p>
166) 
167) <li>10% for corruption</li>
168) 
169) <p>A contact of ours who works with a public health nonprofit in
170) Africa reports that his nonprofit must budget 10% to cover various
171) sorts of corruption, mostly bribes and such.  When that percentage
172) rises steeply, not only can they not afford the money, but they can
173) not afford to complain -- this is the point at which open objection can

174) become dangerous.  So his nonprofit has been working to use

175) Tor to safely whistleblow on governmental corruption in order to continue
176) their work more effectively and safely.</p>
177) 
178) <li>Labor organizers in the US and overseas</li>
179) 
180) <p>At a recent conference a Tor staffer ran into a woman who came from

181) a “company town” in a mountainous area of the

182) eastern United States. She was attempting to blog anonymously to rally

183) local residents to urge reform on the company that dominated the town's

184) economic and governmental affairs, fully cognizant that the kind of
185) organizing she was doing could lead to harm or “fatal
186) accidents.&rdquo;</p>
187) 
188) <p>In east Asia, some labor organizers use anonymity to reveal information
189) regarding sweatshops that produce goods for western countries and to
190) organize local labor.</p>
191) 
192) </ul>
193) 
194) <h2>People with high profile community roles use Tor</h2>
195) 
196) <p>Does being in the public spotlight shut you off from having a private
197) life, forever, online?  A rural lawyer in a small New England state keeps
198) an anonymous blog because, with the diverse clientele at his prestigious
199) law firm, his political beliefs are bound to offend someone.  Yet, he
200) doesn't want to remain silent on issues he cares about.  Tor helps him
201) feel secure that he can express his opinion without consequences to his
202) public role.</p>
203) 
204) <h2>Poor people use Tor</h2>
205) 
206) <p>People living in poverty often don't participate fully in civil society
207) -- not out of ignorance or apathy, but out of fear.  If something you
208) write were to get back to your boss, would you lose your job?  If your
209) social worker read about your opinion of the system, would she treat
210) you differently?  Anonymity gives a voice to the voiceless.</p>
211) 
212) <ul>
213) 
214) <li>VISTA grant</li>
215) 
216) <p>Tor has an open Americorps/VISTA position.  This
217) government grant will cover a full time stipend for a volunteer to create
218) curricula to show low-income populations how to use anonymity online for
219) safer civic engagement.  Although it's often said that the poor do not use
220) online access for civic engagment, failing to act in their self-interests,
221) it is our hypothesis (based on personal conversations and anecdotal
222) information) that it is precisely the &ldquo;permanent record &rdquo;
223) left online that keeps many of the poor from speaking out on the Internet.
224) Where speaking out on social programs or job related issues might seem
225) in their enlightened self interest, they see things closer to home.
226) The boss or social worker or educational advisor virtually looking over
227) their shoulder could put a fragile situation into a tailspin.</p>
228) 
229) <p>We hope to show people how to more safely engage online, and then at
230) the end of the year, evaluate how online and offline civic engagement has
231) changed, and how the population sees this continuing in clear channels
232) and anonymously into the future.</p>
233) 
234) </ul>
235) 
236) <h2>People who care about privacy, in general, increasingly use Tor</h2>
237) 
238) <p>In the section below on recent media mentions of Tor, it becomes
239) clear that the recent revelation of users' browsing patterns by AOL has
240) piqued the conscience of the everyday Internet surfer in more privacy.
241) All over the net, Tor is being recommended to people newly concerned
242) about their privacy in the face of increasing breaches and betrayals of
243) private data.</p>
244) 
245) <h2>Soldiers in the field use Tor</h2>
246) 
247) <ul>
248) 
249) <li>Field agents</li>
250) 
251) <p>How much, do you imagine, would the Iraqi insurgency pay to find out
252) the location of every computer in Baghdad that logged into a military
253) server in Maryland to read email?  Tor can protect military personnel in
254) the field by hiding their location, and even by concealing the location
255) of Command and Control servers.</p>
256) 
257) <li>Hidden services</li>
258) 
259) </ul>
260) 
261) <p>When the Internet was designed by DARPA, its primary purpose was to
262) be able to facilitate distributed, robust communications in case of
263) local strikes.  However, some functions must be centralized, such as
264) command and control sites.  It's the nature of the Internet protocols to
265) reveal the geographic location of any server that is reachable online,
266) however Tor's hidden services capacity allows military command and
267) control to be physically secure from discovery and takedown.</p>
268) 
269) <h2>Law enforcement officers use Tor</h2>
270) 

271) <p>Undercover officers use Tor to conceal their IP address during

272) sting operations. “Anonymous tip lines” may still

273) preserve a log of IP addresses, if the informant isn't using Tor.</p>

274) 
275) <ul>
276) 
277) <li>online surveillance</li>
278) 
279) <p>Tor allows officials to surf questionable web sites and services
280) without leaving tell-tale tracks.  If the system administrator of an
281) illegal gambling site, for example, were to see multiple connections from
282) governmental or law enforcement computers in usage logs, investigations
283) would be hampered.</p>
284) 
285) <li>sting operations</li>
286) 
287) <p>Similarly, anonymity allows law officers to engage in online
288) &ldquo;undercover &rdquo; operations.  Regardless of how good an
289) undercover officer's &ldquo;street cred&rdquo; may be, if his or her
290) email headers include nypd.nyc.ny.state.us, his or her cover is blown.</p>
291) 
292) <li>truly anonymous tip lines</li>
293) 
294) <p>While online anonymous tip lines are popular, without anonymity
295) software, they are far less useful.  Sophisticated sources understand that
296) although a name or email address is not attached to information, server
297) logs can identify them very quickly.  As a result, tip line web sites that
298) do not encourage anonymity are limiting the sources of their tips.</p>
299) 

300) </ul>
301) 

302) <h2>Whistleblowers use Tor</h2>
303) 
304) <p>In the US, the Supreme Court recently stripped legal protections from
305) government whistleblowers.  But whistleblowers working for governmental
306) transparency or corporate accountability can use Tor to seek justice
307) without personal repercussions.</p>
308) 
309) <h2>Bloggers use Tor</h2>
310) 
311) <p>Every day we hear about bloggers who are sued or fired for saying
312) perfectly legal things online, in their blog.  In addition to following
313) the guidelines of EFF's Guide and RSF's guide, we recommend using Tor.</p>
314) 
315) <h2>Citizens of repressive regimes use Tor</h2>
316) 
317) <p>Whether to read information on censored topics (such as AIDS, Tibet,
318) or democracy), or to write about controversial topics, people inside
319) oppressive regimes can risk life and livelihood.  Tor helps cover the
320) tracks of dissidents, foreign nationals, or even just people who want
321) free accesss to information most of us take for granted.</p>
322) 
323) <h2>People organizing for change use Tor</h2>
324) 
325) <ul>
326) <li>union organizers/labor activists</li>
327) 
328) See mentions above
329) 
330) <li>democracy activists/dissidents</li>
331) 
332) See mentions above
333) 
334) <li>peace/green activists</li>
335) 
336) <p>When groups such as the Friends Service Committee and environmental
337) groups are increasingly falling under surveillance in the United States
338) under laws meant to protect against terrorism, many peaceful agents of
339) change rely on Tor for basic privacy for legitimate activities.</p>
340) 
341) </ul>
342) 
343) <h2>Business executives use Tor</h2>
344) <ul>
345) 
346) <li>security breach information clearinghouses</li>
347) 
348) <p>Say a financial institution participates in a security clearinghouse
349) of information on Internet attacks.  Such a repository requires members
350) to report breaches to a central group, who correlates attacks to detect
351) coordinated patterns and send out alerts.  But if a specific bank in
352) St. Louis is breached, they don't want an attacker watching the incoming
353) traffic to such a repository to be able to track where information is
354) coming from.  Even though every packet were encrypted, the Internet
355) address would betray the location of a compromised system.  Tor allows
356) such repositories of sensitive information to resist compromises.</p>
357) 
358) <li>seeing your competition as your market does</li>
359) 
360) <p>If you try to check out a competitor's pricing, you may find no
361) information or misleading information on their web site.  This is because
362) their web server may be keyed to detect connections from competitors,
363) and block or spread disinformation to your staff.  Tor allows a business
364) to view their sector as the general public would view it.</p>
365) 
366) <li>keeping strategies confidential</li>
367) 
368) <p>An investment bank, for example, might not want industry snoopers to be
369) able to track what web sites their analysts are watching.  The strategic
370) importance of traffic patterns, and the vulnerability of the surveillance
371) of such data, is starting to be more widely recognized in several areas
372) of the business world.</p>
373) 

374) <li>accountability</li>

375) 
376) <p>In an age when irresponsible and unreported corporate activity has
377) undermined multi-billion dollar businesses, an executive exercising true
378) stewardship wants the whole staff to feel free to disclose internal
379) malfeasance.  Tor facilitates internal accountability before it turns
380) into whistleblowing.</p>
381) 

382) </ul>
383)