In this blog post, I would like to give you an introduction to Tor and try to address some fundamental questions about it.

What is Tor?

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows you to improve your privacy and security on the Internet. It protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world, it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. This collection of volunteer relays is called the Tor network. The way most people use Tor is with the Tor Browser, which is based on Firefox ESR and comes bundled with privacy enhancing & anti-fingerprinting features.

So, basically, it's a VPN?

Nope. Tor is NOT a VPN and furthermore it is not recommended to use Tor and VPN together. These are fundamentally very different. In the case of VPN, you're just transferring your trust from your internet service provider (ISP) to the VPN provider. The VPN provider can log any data while you use their network and it's a single point of failure as well. Anyone snooping on the VPN connection can also easily gain knowledge of your activities. To add, VPNs don't essentially take any steps to mitigate browser fingerprinting or cross-site tracking on the internet.

While using Tor, your connection is made to the website by bouncing the connection through three different relays so the website you're connecting to can only see the IP address of the 'exit' relay. The Tor Browser furthermore comes bundled with features like: a different circuit of every different domain, i.e. a new circuit for every website you're connecting to so as to mitigate cross-site tracking; 'Security Settings' with which you can also disable most of the harmful JavaScript (this might break some websites though!). Something noteworthy is that the idea is not to hide that you're using the Tor network but to anonymize your activities on the Tor network.

"But, hey, if it's known that you're connecting to the Tor network then anyone can censor your connection, right?" Yep, let's talk about censorship!

Censorship

I've touched on this very briefly in my previous post. Many governments or internet service providers try to block connections to the Tor Network. The Tor Browser ships with "pluggable transports" to circumvent these blocks. Most pluggable transports, such as obfs4, rely on the use of “bridge” relays. Unlike the ordinary relays, bridge relays are not listed publicly (but these are still run by volunteers).

Tor is an essential tool for privacy and anonymity on the internet. It is a tool used by millions of people all around the globe - from journalists to human rights activists to ordinary people. My work as an intern with the Community Team is to handle tickets on the request tracker, answer user queries and derive useful reports for our teams across the board!

I'm elated to share, I am one of the Tor Project interns with Outreachy for the December 2020 - March 2021 round. I will be working on the project- "Helping Tor support our users". Through this blog I will try to document my work, my thoughts and my experiences ... and answer the questions that my readers might have.

About Myself

I'm Joydeep Sen Gupta, also known as 'championquizzer' on the internet. I very recently graduated with a bachelors degree in engineering (Electronics and Communication). I love computers (and technology, in general) and spend most of my day in front of one. I am a free/libre open-source software enthusiast with a strong focus on privacy and cybersecurity. In my free time, I like to read history, watch documentaries, study ancient & modern maps, listen to music (mostly baroque & classical) and play football (soccer).

My core values are -
- curiousity : I'm perennially curious to learn and re-learn stuff about computer systems and society. I like to hear other people's lived experiences and learn from them.
- openness : I firmly believe in openness and inclusion of all. This is primarily why, I am also a strong advocate of open source technology and open knowledge.
- kindness & compassion : I don't know who quoted this but this resonates with me so well - "We're a collection of seven billion codependent atoms, stop hating eachother on the basis of social constructs and come along for the ride!"

Outreachy Internship and Tor Project

The principles that Outreachy Internships stand for - welcoming folks from all walks of life to open source, promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion, connecting interns with experienced mentors from open source communities is what motivated me to apply to this program. The past few months, right from the application period to the contribution period has been a great learning experience for me.
Furthermore, with my interest in encryption, privacy, anonymity and freedom from surveillance on the internet, I was highly motivated to work with the Tor Project. As most of our work and communication is moving online, these are really challenging times to fight for your freedom, privacy and rights on the internet. I am glad I can be part of the project at such crucial times.