## translation metadata
# Revision: $Revision$
# Translation-Priority: 2-medium
#include "head.wmi" TITLE="Who uses Tor?" CHARSET="UTF-8"
<div class="main-column">
<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 & 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&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.
</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>