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torusers.wml

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#include "head.wmi" TITLE="Who uses Tor?"

# Note to translators: this file is still under construction, and
# will probably change a whole lot before we link to it. So it's
# probably best to not translate it yet.

<p>
We're still writing this page; please <a href="<page
contact>">send us</a> your fixes, comments, and stories!
</p>

<p>
Tor provides anonymity: 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.
As an 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>So while each story below represents actual users we've talked to,
we've done our best to anonymize them when appropriate.
</p>

<hr />

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

<ul>
<li>...protect their privacy from unscrupulous marketers</li>

<p>Anonymity helps defeat marketing that doesn't have your permissions.
There are all kinds of unscrupulous marketing techniques that track your
activity
to build marketing databases, often selling your private information
without your permission.  Tor, used appropriately,
helps defeat many of these violations
of your privacy.</p>

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

<p>&ldquo;I'm proud my mom and dad let me stay alone at home now.&rdquo;
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 literally mapped to street locations, and in the US the
government is pushing to get this mapping closer and closer to 
street addresses.
</p>

<li>...research sensitive topics</li>

<p>There's a wealth of information available online.   But perhaps in your 
country, access to information on AIDS, birth control, Tibetan culture,
or world religions is behind a national firewall.
Or perhaps you are worried that if you research a particular set of
symptoms, at some later date an insurance company might buy the 
logs of the websites you visited and establish that
you had suspicions of a pre-existing condition.
</p>

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

<p>Tor allows you to see the World Wide
Web from a different perspective.  Want to see Google come up in Polish?
If you leave the Tor cloud at a Polish Tor relay, you'll see what
Poland sees online.  Want to check the differential pricing offered by
an online retailer or wholesaler to folks in another country, compared
to the pricing offered to you or your company?  Tor can
provide that window to the world.</p>

</ul>

<h2>Journalists use Tor</h2>

<ul>

<li>Reporters without Borders</li>

<p><a href="http://www.rsf.org/">Reporters without Borders</a> advises
journalists, sources, bloggers, and dissidents online to use Tor to
ensure their privacy.  RSF tracks internet prisoners of conscience and
jailed or harmed journalists all over the world.</p>

<li>IBB/Voice of America/Radio Free Europe/Radio Free Asia</li>

<p>The US <a href="http://www.ibb.gov/">International Broadcasting
Bureau</a> supports Tor development to help Internet users in countries
where they can't get
safe access to free media.  Tor not only protects freedom of expression,
but preserves the ability of persons behind national firewalls or under
the surveillance of repressive regimes to view information that gives
a global perspective on democracy, economics, religion, and other vital
topics to a full global perspective on culture.</p>

<li>Reporters in sensitive locations</li>

<p>Reporters in sensitive environments can use Tor to be more secure in
filing their stories.</p>

<li>sources</li>

<p>Journalists' sources often use Tor to report sensitive information,
or to discuss items with journalists from sensitive locations.</p>

<li>whistleblowers</li>

<p>Likewise, whistleblowers use Tor to safely leave tips on governmental
and corporate malfeasance.

<li>citizen journalism</li>

<p>Citizen journalists in China and other &ldquo;Internet black
holes&rdquo; use Tor to write about local events and to encourage social
change and political reform, more secure that there will not be a knock
on their door at midnight.</p>

</ul>

<h2>Human rights workers use Tor</h2>

<p>Reporting human rights violations from within their country of origin
is a task for peaceful warriors.  It takes courage and a good eye to risk
mitigation.  Human rights activists use Tor to anonymously report from
danger zones.  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.  Are they within the law?
But, does that mean they are safe?</p>

<ul>

<li>Human Rights Watch</li>

<p>In their report &ldquo;Race to the Bottom: Corporate
Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship,&rdquo; a 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></p>

<p><a href="http://hrw.org/doc/?t=internet">Human Rights Watch</a>
recommends Tor for human rights workers throughout
the globe for &ldquo;secure browsing and communications.&rdquo;</p>

<li>Amnesty International</li>

<p>Tor has consulted and volunteered help to Amnesty International's
recent corporate responsibility campaign at
<a href="http://irrepressible.info/">http://irrepressible.info/</a>.
See also their <a
href="http://irrepressible.info/static/pdf/FOE-in-china-2006-lores.pdf">full
report</a> on China Internet issues.</p>

<li>Global Voices</li>

<p>Global Voices can't stop recommending Tor throughout their <a
href="http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.globalvoicesonline.org+tor">
web site.</a></p>

<li>10% for corruption</li>

<p>A contact of ours who works with a public health nonprofit in
Africa reports that his nonprofit must budget 10% to cover various
sorts of corruption, 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 use
Tor to safely whistleblow on governmental corruption in order to continue
their work more effectively and safely.</p>

<li>Labor organizers in the US and overseas</li>

<p>At a recent conference a Tor staffer ran into a woman who came from
a &ldquo;company town&rdquo; in a mountainous area of the
eastern United States. She was attempting to blog anonymously to rally
local residents to urge reform on the company that dominated the town's
economic and governmental affairs, fully cognizant that the kind of
organizing she was doing could lead to harm or &ldquo;fatal
accidents.&rdquo;</p>

<p>In east Asia, some labor organizers use anonymity to reveal information
regarding sweatshops that produce goods for western countries and to
organize local labor.</p>

</ul>

<h2>People with high profile community roles use Tor</h2>

<p>Does being in the public spotlight shut you off from having a private
life, forever, online?  A rural lawyer in a small New England state keeps
an anonymous blog because, with the diverse clientele at his prestigious
law firm, his political beliefs are bound to offend someone.  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.</p>

<h2>Poor people use Tor</h2>

<p>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.</p>

<ul>

<li>VISTA grant</li>

<p>Tor has an open Americorps/VISTA position.  This
government grant will cover a full time stipend for a volunteer to create
curricula to show low-income populations how to use anonymity online for
safer civic engagement.  Although it's often said that the poor do not use
online access for civic engagment, 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.
Where speaking out on social programs or job related issues might seem
in their enlightened self interest, they see things closer to home.
The boss or social worker or educational advisor virtually looking over
their shoulder could put a fragile situation into a tailspin.</p>

<p>We hope to show people how to more safely engage 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 in clear channels
and anonymously into the future.</p>

</ul>

<h2>People who care about privacy, in general, increasingly use Tor</h2>

<p>In the section below on recent media mentions of Tor, it becomes
clear that the recent revelation of users' browsing patterns by AOL has
piqued the conscience of the everyday Internet surfer in more privacy.
All over the net, Tor is being recommended to people newly concerned
about their privacy in the face of increasing breaches and betrayals of
private data.</p>

<h2>Soldiers in the field use Tor</h2>

<ul>

<li>Field agents</li>

<p>How much, do you imagine, would the Iraqi insurgency pay to find out
the location of every computer in Baghdad that logged into a military
server in Maryland to read email?  Tor can protect military personnel in
the field by hiding their location, and even by concealing the location
of Command and Control servers.</p>

<li>Hidden services</li>

<p>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,
however Tor's hidden services capacity allows military command and
control to be physically secure from discovery and takedown.</p>

</ul>

<h2>Law enforcement officers use Tor</h2>

<p>Undercover officers use Tor to conceal their IP address during
sting operations. &ldquo;Anonymous tip lines&rdquo; may still
preserve a log of IP addresses, if the informant isn't using Tor.</p>

<ul>

<li>online surveillance</li>

<p>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
governmental or law enforcement computers in usage logs, investigations
would be hampered.</p>

<li>sting operations</li>

<p>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 his or her
email headers include nypd.nyc.ny.state.us, his or her cover is blown.</p>

<li>truly anonymous tip lines</li>

<p>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.</p>

</ul>

<h2>Whistleblowers use Tor</h2>

<p>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.</p>

<h2>Bloggers use Tor</h2>

<p>Every day we hear about bloggers who are sued or fired for saying
perfectly legal things online, in their blog.  In addition to following
the guidelines of EFF's Guide and RSF's guide, we recommend using Tor.</p>

<h2>Citizens of repressive regimes use Tor</h2>

<p>Whether to read information on censored topics (such as AIDS, Tibet,
or democracy), or to write about controversial topics, people inside
oppressive regimes can risk life and livelihood.  Tor helps cover the
tracks of dissidents, foreign nationals, or even just people who want
free accesss to information most of us take for granted.</p>

<h2>People organizing for change use Tor</h2>

<ul>
<li>union organizers/labor activists</li>

See mentions above

<li>democracy activists/dissidents</li>

See mentions above

<li>peace/green activists</li>

<p>When groups such as the Friends Service Committee and environmental
groups are increasingly falling under surveillance in the United States
under laws meant to protect against terrorism, many peaceful agents of
change rely on Tor for basic privacy for legitimate activities.</p>

</ul>

<h2>Business executives use Tor</h2>
<ul>

<li>security breach information clearinghouses</li>

<p>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 Internet
address would betray the location of a compromised system.  Tor allows
such repositories of sensitive information to resist compromises.</p>

<li>seeing your competition as your market does</li>

<p>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.</p>

<li>keeping strategies confidential</li>

<p>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.</p>

<li>accountability</li>

<p>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.</p>

</ul>

</div>

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