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#include "head.wmi" TITLE="Who uses Tor?" CHARSET="UTF-8"
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<a href="<page about/torusers>">Who Uses Tor</a>
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<h1>Inception</h1>
<hr>
<p>
Tor was originally designed, implemented, and deployed as a
third-generation <a href="http://www.onion-router.net/">onion routing
project of the Naval Research Laboratory</a>. It was originally
developed with the U.S. Navy in mind, for the primary purpose of
protecting government communications. Today, it is used every day
for a wide variety of purposes by the military, journalists, law
enforcement officers, activists, and many others. Here are some of
the specific uses we've seen or recommend.
</p>
<p>We need your <a
href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/we-need-your-good-tor-stories">good
Tor stories</a>! What do you use Tor for? Why do you need it? What
has Tor done for you? We need your stories.</p>
<a name="normalusers"></a>
<img src="$(IMGROOT)/family.jpg" alt="Normal People">
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#normalusers">Normal people use Tor</a></h2>
<hr>
<ul>
<li><strong>They protect their privacy from unscrupulous marketers and identity thieves.</strong>
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/29449-compete-ceo-isps-sell-clickstreams-for-5-a-month">
sell your Internet browsing records</a> to marketers or anyone else
willing to pay for it. ISPs typically say that
they anonymize the data by not providing personally identifiable information, but
<a href="http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2006/08/71579?currentPage=all">this
has proven incorrect</a>. A full record of every site you visit, the text of every search you perform, and potentially
userid and even password information can still be part of this data. In addition to your ISP, the websites (<a href="http://www.google.com/privacy_faq.html">and search engines</a>) you visit have their own logs, containing the same or more information.
</li>
<li><strong> They protect their communications from irresponsible corporations.</strong>
All over the Internet, Tor is being recommended to people newly concerned about their privacy in the face of increasing breaches and betrayals of
private data. From <a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11048">lost backup tapes</a>, to
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09aol.html?ex=1312776000&en=f6f61949c6da4d38&ei=5090">giving away the data to researchers</a>,
your data is often not well protected by those you are supposed to trust to keep it safe.