Tor

Also known as The Onion Router

daemon and utilities for an anonymizing network

AI overview

Tor is free software that routes your internet traffic through multiple computers around the world to hide your identity and location from websites and internet service providers. It matters because it helps protect privacy for people who need it—such as journalists, activists, and ordinary people in countries with heavy internet censorship—though it can also be misused for illegal activities.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of: communication protocol
Named after: onion routing
Founded by: The Tor Project, Inc
Developer: Roger Dingledine
Official website: www.torproject.org/el
Image: Tor-9.png
Has use: Internet censorship circumvention

Show 20 more facts

Commons category: Tor project
operating system: Unix-like operating system
software version identifier: 0.4.8.23
daily patronage: 2000000
programmed in: Q575650
copyright license: 3-clause BSD License
mailing list archive URL: lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-teachers
different from: Tor
source code repository URL: gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor
Stack Exchange tag: stackoverflow.com/tags/tor
topic's main category: Category:Tor (anonymity network)
issue tracker URL: gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/core/tor/issues
IRC channel URL: irc://irc.freenode.net/tor-dev
top-level Internet domain: .onion
official blog URL: blog.torproject.org
publication date: 2002-09-20
topic has template: Template:Tor (anonymity network)
language of work or name: Greek
Stack Exchange site URL: tor.stackexchange.com
social media followers: 46414

Sources (15)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication. It is built on free and open-source software run by over seven thousand volunteer-operated relays worldwide, as well as by millions of users who route their internet traffic via random paths through these relays. This technique is called onion routing.

Using Tor makes it more difficult to trace a user's internet activity by preventing any single point on the internet (other than the user's device) from being able to view both where traffic originated from and where it is ultimately going to at the same time. This conceals a user's location and usage from anyone performing network surveillance or traffic analysis from any such point, protecting the user's freedom and ability to communicate confidentially.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tor” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.