“All people who use Tor are criminals” Not so fast.

Many people could take advantage of the TOR network. Anonymous browsing has many great advantages

TOR is short for The Onion Router and was originally a worldwide network of servers created with the U.S. Navy that allowed people to browse the internet anonymously. Today, it is a non-profit organization that continues to research and develop online privacy tools.

Your identity is disguised by the TOR network by streaming your traffic across different TOR serves, and encrypting that traffic so that it is not traced back to you.

If someone were to try to trace you would just come to a random node on the TOR network instead of your computer.

It’s actually easier to get started with TOR than you might think. Checkout this post to get started. I’ve created a layman’s guide to get started on the TOR network.

So who could benefit from using TOR?

#1. Journalist

There are times when it is important for a journalist to stay anonymous. Especially when following leads. In some countries, it may even be dangerous to research certain topics or trends online. TOR is an excellent way to help journalists stay anonymous on the web.

#2. Activist

Political activists can take advantage of the anonymity found on TOR. Just in the past few years, we have seen several activists organizing demonstrations. It would be prudent to do so anonymously.

#3. Abuse victim

Victims of domestic abuse or stalking could take advantage of TOR. Not every psycho ex is computer illiterate. You would be surprised how many victims of stalking are found through their online habits.

#4. Police Officer

Police investigators could use TOR to cover their tracks when following leads.

#5. Privacy advocate

There are those who would prefer to stay anonymous. TOR gives everyone that opportunity to stay hidden from government’s prying eyes.

#6. Citizen of a repressive government

We have all seen it. Citizens in a country where their government closely monitors their activity online. TOR is a great opportunity to be anonymous and stay out of reach from the governments all seeing eye.

#7. Private Investigator

Those that have been put on the case to investigate need to do so wisely in this tech-savvy world. PI’s could use TOR to cover their tracks during an investigation.

#8. Anonymous donor

People who wish to bless other people’s lives anonymously could take advantage of TOR. Covering their tracks and staying anonymous.

If you have any other people that you can think of that could benefit from the TOR network, please comment below. I would love to hear from you.