Tor: How a Military Project Became a Lifeline for Privacy
16 days ago
- #technology
- #privacy
- #cybersecurity
- Tor was originally a military project developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to protect the anonymity of military communications.
- The technology behind Tor, known as onion routing, encrypts and bounces internet traffic through a global network of servers to hide users' identities and locations.
- Tor is now used by a wide range of users, including activists, journalists, and people in authoritarian countries, to bypass censorship and surveillance.
- The development of Tor involved an unlikely collaboration between military researchers and cypherpunk hackers who shared a vision of privacy and decentralized control.
- Privacy technologies like Tor are essential for protecting against both cybercrime and state surveillance, but they are often criticized by law enforcement for enabling illegal activities.
- The debate around privacy and security often frames the issue as a trade-off between individual rights and collective safety, but many argue that strong encryption is necessary to protect vulnerable groups.
- Tor and similar technologies represent a vision of the internet as a tool for empowerment and resistance against centralized control by governments and corporations.