Tor: anonymity online

Tor is a software project that helps you defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Tor protects you by encrypting your communications and bouncing them around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the Internet's TCP protocol.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world use Tor for a wide variety of reasons: journalists and bloggers, human rights workers, law enforcement officers, soldiers, corporations, citizens of repressive regimes, and just ordinary citizens. See the overview page for a more detailed explanation of what Tor does, why this diversity of users is important, and how Tor works.

(There are three pieces of fine print you need to know about. First, Tor does not protect you if you do not use it correctly. Read our list of warnings and make sure to follow the instructions for your platform carefully. Second, even if you configure and use Tor correctly, there are still potential attacks that could compromise Tor's ability to protect you. Third, no anonymity system is perfect these days, and Tor is no exception: you should not rely solely on the current Tor network if you really need strong anonymity.)

Tor's security improves as its user base grows and as more people volunteer to run relays. (It isn't nearly as hard to set up as you might think, and can significantly enhance your own security against some attacks.) If running a relay isn't for you, we need help with many other aspects of the project, and we need funds to continue making the Tor network faster and easier to use while maintaining good security. Please donate.

News

• Oct 2007: As many of you know, The Tor Project became an independent and official nonprofit this past February. We did this so we could accept grants from groups who only donate to NGOs, and so our donors could deduct qualifying donations made to us.
  We'd like to extend our profound thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for their past support, fiscal sponsorship, and help in hosting some of our web pages, and for their continued mentorship of and counsel to our fledgling nonprofit organization.
• Aug 2007: Please update your Tor software! The latest versions (stable: 0.1.2.17; development: 0.2.0.6-alpha) patch a significant security vulnerability. See the release announcement for more information.
• We are actively looking for new sponsors and funding. If your organization has an interest in keeping the Tor network usable and fast, please contact us. Sponsors of Tor also get personal attention, better support, publicity (if they want it), and get to influence the direction of our research and development.