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torusers.wml

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#include "head.wmi" TITLE="Who uses Tor?" CHARSET="UTF-8"

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<h1>Who uses Tor?</h1>
<ul>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#normalusers">Everyday, ordinary Internet users use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#military">Militaries use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#journalist">Journalists and their audience use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#lawenforcement">Law enforcement officers use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#activists">Activists &amp; Whistleblowers use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#spotlight">Both high and low profile people use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#executives">Business executives use Tor</a></li>
<li><a href="<page torusers>#bloggers">Bloggers use Tor</a></li>
</ul>
<p>

<h2>Inception</h2>
<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 by, and for, the U.S. Navy 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>

<a name="normalusers"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#normalusers">Everyday, ordinary Internet users use Tor</a></h2>
<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&amp;en=f6f61949c6da4d38&amp;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.
</li>
<li><strong>They protect their children online.</strong>
You've told your kids they shouldn't share personally identifying information online, but they may be sharing their location simply
by not concealing their IP address. Increasingly, IP addresses can be <a href="http://whatismyipaddress.com/">literally mapped to a city or even street location</a>, and can <a href="http://whatsmyip.org/more/">reveal other information</a> about how you are connecting to the Internet.
In the United States, the government is pushing to make this mapping increasingly precise.
</li>
<li><strong>They research sensitive topics.</strong>
There's a wealth of information available online. But perhaps in your country, access to information on AIDS, birth control,
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/tech/main531567.shtml">Tibetan culture</a>,
or world religions is behind a national firewall.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="military"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#military">Militaries use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>

<li>
<strong>Field Agents:</strong>
It is not difficult for insurgents to monitor Internet traffic and
discover all the hotels and other locations from which people are
connecting to known military servers.
Military field agents deployed away from home use Tor to
mask the sites they are visiting, protecting military interests and
operations, as well as protecting themselves from physical harm.
</li>

<li><strong>Hidden services:</strong>
When the Internet was designed by DARPA, its primary purpose was to be able to facilitate distributed, robust communications in case of
local strikes.  However, some functions must be centralized, such as command and control sites.  It's the nature of the Internet protocols to
reveal the geographic location of any server that is reachable online.  Tor's hidden services capacity allows military command and
control to be physically secure from discovery and takedown.
</li>
<li><strong>Intelligence gathering:</strong>
Military personnel need to use electronic resources run and monitored by insurgents. They do not want the webserver logs on an insurgent website
to record a military address, thereby revealing the surveillance.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="journalist"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#journalist">Journalists and their audience use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.rsf.org/">Reporters without Borders</a></strong>
tracks Internet prisoners of conscience and jailed or harmed journalists all over the world. They advise
journalists, sources, bloggers, and dissidents to use Tor to ensure their privacy and safety.
</li>
<li><strong>The US <a href="http://www.ibb.gov/">International Broadcasting Bureau</a></strong>
(Voice of America/Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Asia) supports Tor development to help Internet users in countries without
safe access to free media.  Tor preserves the ability of persons behind national firewalls or under
the surveillance of repressive regimes to obtain a global perspective on controversial topics including democracy,
economics and religion.
</li>
<li><strong>Citizen journalists in China</strong> use Tor to write about
local events to encourage social change and political reform.
</li>
<li><strong>Citizens and journalists in <a
href="http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=554">Internet black
holes</a></strong> use Tor to research state propaganda and opposing
viewpoints, to file stories with non-State controlled media, and to
avoid risking the personal consequences of intellectual curiosity.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="lawenforcement"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#lawenforcement">Law enforcement officers use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Online surveillance:</strong>
Tor allows officials to surf questionable web sites and services
without leaving tell-tale tracks.  If the system administrator of an
illegal gambling site, for example, were to see multiple connections from
government or law enforcement IP addresses in usage logs, investigations
may be hampered.
</li>
<li><strong>Sting operations:</strong>
Similarly, anonymity allows law officers to engage in online
&ldquo;undercover &rdquo; operations.  Regardless of how good an
undercover officer's &ldquo;street cred&rdquo; may be, if the
communications include IP ranges from police addresses, the cover is blown.
</li>
<li><strong>Truly anonymous tip lines:</strong>
While online anonymous tip lines are popular, without anonymity
software, they are far less useful.  Sophisticated sources understand that
although a name or email address is not attached to information, server
logs can identify them very quickly.  As a result, tip line web sites that
do not encourage anonymity are limiting the sources of their tips.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="activists"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#activists">Activists &amp; Whistleblowers use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Human rights activists use Tor to anonymously report abuses from
danger zones.</strong>  Internationally, labor rights workers use Tor and other
forms of online and offline anonymity to organize workers in accordance
with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even though they are within
the law, it does not mean they are safe. Tor provides the ability to
avoid persecution while still raising a voice.
</li>
<li>When groups such as the <strong>Friends Service Committee and environmental
groups are increasingly <a href="http://www.afsc.org/news/2005/government-spying.htm">falling under surveillance</a>
in the United States</strong> under laws meant to protect against terrorism, many peaceful agents of
change rely on Tor for basic privacy during legitimate activities.
</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://hrw.org/doc/?t=internet">Human Rights Watch</a></strong>
recommends Tor in their report, &ldquo;
<a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/">Race to the Bottom: Corporate
Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship</a>.&rdquo; The study
co-author interviewed Roger Dingledine, Tor project leader,
on Tor use.  They cover Tor in the section on how to breach the <a
href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/3.htm#_Toc142395820">&ldquo;Great
Firewall of China,&rdquo;</a> and recommend that human rights workers throughout
the globe use Tor for &ldquo;secure browsing and communications.&rdquo;
</li>
<li> Tor has consulted with and volunteered help to <strong>Amnesty International's
recent <a href="http://irrepressible.info/">corporate responsibility campaign</a></strong>.
See also their <a href="http://irrepressible.info/static/pdf/FOE-in-china-2006-lores.pdf">full
report</a> on China Internet issues.
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org">Global Voices</a>
recommends Tor, especially for <strong>anonymous blogging</strong>,
throughout their <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.globalvoicesonline.org+tor">
web site.</a>
</li>
<li>In the US, the Supreme Court recently stripped legal protections from
government whistleblowers.  But whistleblowers working for governmental
transparency or corporate accountability can use Tor to seek justice
without personal repercussions.
</li>
<li>A contact of ours who works with a public health nonprofit in
Africa reports that his nonprofit <strong>must budget 10% to cover various sorts of corruption</strong>,
mostly bribes and such.  When that percentage rises steeply, not only can they not afford the money, but they can
not afford to complain &mdash; this is the point at which open objection can
become dangerous.  So his nonprofit has been working to
<strong>use Tor to safely whistleblow on government corruption</strong> in order to continue their work.
</li>
<li>At a recent conference, a Tor staffer ran into a woman who came from
a &ldquo;company town&rdquo; in the eastern United States. She was attempting to blog anonymously to rally
local residents to <strong>urge reform in the company</strong> that dominated the town's
economic and government affairs. She is fully cognizant that the kind of
organizing she was doing <strong>could lead to harm or &ldquo;fatal
accidents.&rdquo;</strong>
</li>
<li>In east Asia, some labor organizers use anonymity to <strong>reveal information
regarding sweatshops</strong> that produce goods for western countries and to
organize local labor.
</li>
<li>
Tor can help activists avoid government or corporate censorship that hinders organization.
In one such case, a
<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/07/24/telus-sites050724.html">Canadian ISP blocked access to a union website used by their own employees</a>
to help organize a strike.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="spotlight"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#spotlight">Both high and low profile people use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>Does being in the public spotlight shut you off from having a private
life, forever, online?  A rural lawyer in a New England state keeps
an anonymous blog because, with the diverse clientele at his prestigious
law firm, <strong>his political beliefs are bound to offend someone</strong>.  Yet, he
doesn't want to remain silent on issues he cares about.  Tor helps him
feel secure that he can express his opinion without consequences to his
public role.
</li>
<li>People living in poverty often don't participate fully in civil society
-- not out of ignorance or apathy, but out of fear.  If something you
write were to get back to your boss, would you lose your job?  If your
social worker read about your opinion of the system, would she treat
you differently?  Anonymity gives a voice to the voiceless.
To support this, <strong>Tor currently has an open Americorps/VISTA position</strong> pending.  This
government grant will cover a full time stipend for a volunteer to create
curricula to <strong>show low-income populations how to use anonymity online for
safer civic engagement</strong>.  Although it's often said that the poor do not use
online access for civic engagement, failing to act in their self-interests,
it is our hypothesis (based on personal conversations and anecdotal
information) that it is precisely the &ldquo;permanent record &rdquo;
left online that keeps many of the poor from speaking out on the Internet.
We hope to show people how to engage more safely online, and then at
the end of the year, evaluate how online and offline civic engagement has
changed, and how the population sees this continuing into the future.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="executives"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#executives">Business executives use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><strong>Security breach information clearinghouses:</strong>
Say a financial institution participates in a security clearinghouse
of information on Internet attacks.  Such a repository requires members
to report breaches to a central group, who correlates attacks to detect
coordinated patterns and send out alerts.  But if a specific bank in St. Louis is breached, they don't want an attacker watching the incoming
traffic to such a repository to be able to track where information is
coming from.  Even though every packet were encrypted, the IP
address would betray the location of a compromised system.  Tor allows
such repositories of sensitive information to resist compromises.
</li>
<li><strong>Seeing your competition as your market does:</strong>
If you try to check out a competitor's pricing, you may find no
information or misleading information on their web site.  This is because
their web server may be keyed to detect connections from competitors,
and block or spread disinformation to your staff.  Tor allows a business
to view their sector as the general public would view it.
</li>
<li><strong>Keeping strategies confidential:</strong>
An investment bank, for example, might not want industry snoopers to be
able to track what web sites their analysts are watching.  The strategic
importance of traffic patterns, and the vulnerability of the surveillance
of such data, is starting to be more widely recognized in several areas
of the business world.
</li>
<li><strong>Accountability:</strong>
In an age when irresponsible and unreported corporate activity has
undermined multi-billion dollar businesses, an executive exercising true
stewardship wants the whole staff to feel free to disclose internal
malfeasance.  Tor facilitates internal accountability before it turns
into whistleblowing.
</li>
</ul>

<a name="bloggers"></a>
<h2><a class="anchor" href="#bloggers">Bloggers use Tor</a></h2>
<ul>
<li>Every day we hear about bloggers who are
<a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112541909221726743-Kl4kLxv0wSbjqrkXg_DieY3c8lg_20050930.html">sued</a> or
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2005-06-14-worker-blogs-usat_x.htm">fired</a>
for saying perfectly legal things online, in their blog.  In addition to following
the advice in the <a href="http://w2.eff.org/bloggers/lg/">EFF Legal Guide for Bloggers</a>
and Reporters Without Borders' <a href="http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542">Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents</a>,
we recommend using Tor.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
Please do send us your success stories. They are very important because
Tor provides anonymity. While it is thrilling to speculate about <a
href="<page faq-abuse>">undesired effects of Tor</a>, when it succeeds, nobody notices.  This is
great for users, but not so good for us, since publishing success
stories about how people or organizations are staying anonymous could be
counterproductive.  For example, we talked to an FBI officer who
explained that he uses Tor every day for his work &mdash; but he quickly followed up with a request not to provide
details or mention his name.</p>

<p> Like any technology, from pencils to cellphones, anonymity can be used for both good and bad.  You have probably seen some of the vigorous
debate (<a href="http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/01/70000">pro</a>,
<a href="http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_4.html#kelly">con</a>, and <a
href="http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/anon.html">academic</a>) over anonymity. The Tor project is based on the belief that anonymity is not
just a good idea some of the time - it is a requirement for a free and functioning society.  The <a href="http://www.eff.org/issues/anonymity">EFF maintains a good overview</a> of how anonymity was crucial to the founding of the United States.  Anonymity is recognized by US courts as a fundamental and important right. In fact, governments mandate anonymity in many cases themselves:
<a href="https://www.crimeline.co.za/default.asp">police tip lines</a>,
<a href="http://www.texasbar.com/Content/ContentGroups/Public_Information1/Legal_Resources_Consumer_Information/Family_Law1/Adoption_Options.htm#sect2">adoption services</a>,
<a href="http://writ.news.findlaw.com/aronson/20020827.html">police officer identities</a>,
and so forth. It would be impossible to rehash the entire anonymity debate here - it is too large an issue with too many nuances, and there
are plenty of other places where this information can be found. We do have a <a href="<page faq-abuse>">Tor abuse</a> page describing some of
the possible abuse cases for Tor, but suffice it to say that if you want to abuse the system, you'll either find it mostly closed for your
purposes (e.g. the majority of Tor relays do not support SMTP in order to prevent anonymous email spamming), or if you're one of the
<a href="http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/computer_crime_1.html">Four Horsemen of the Information Apocalypse</a>,
you have better options than Tor. While not dismissing the potential abuses of Tor,
this page shows a few of the many important ways anonymity is used online today.</p>
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