Do you trust Tor?
Tor is an anonymity service that can be used to anonymously browse the Internet (whether on the clear/surface web or the dark web) by means of the free and open-source Tor browser.
According to https://restoreprivacy.com/tor/
, there are several reasons not to use Tor, especially the following:
- Tor was created by the US government for some reason that will benefit them
- Tor developers (some of them) work closely with government agencies
- Everyone will know that you are using Tor (but not what you are doing)
- Malicious exit nodes can listen to all traffic on non-HTTPS websites
- Strong adversaries can probalistically determine which Tor user is visiting a website by "timing attacks" (that is, getting the times a packet of data passed through an entry node and exit node which are controlled or compromised by the same adversary)
- Tor is (still) being funded by the US government and Big Tech corporations
- Tor is also being used by the US government, and ordinary users only help mask their activity
Regardless of the reasons stated above, I personally still trust Tor for the following reasons:
- Its encryption has not been broken (yet)
- Most (if not all) Tor users already know that the US Navy started Tor
- More and more of its previous vulnerabilities have been patched up, meaning it gets better over time
- Timing attacks are mostly inaccurate, especially when there are more people using Tor at the same time
- Tor hidden services are always fully encrypted on transit, so there is no need for SSL/TLS encryption
In your own opinion, do you (still) trust Tor?
P.S. When accessing any of the Hive apps, I use only the Tor browser. Though I like its anonymity, there are some inconveniences that I have to tolerate. @ash may find this poll interesting.
(chopped onions image from Pixabay)
- Yes
- No
- Not using Tor
- Other
Answer the question at dpoll.xyz.