*** Welcome to piglix ***

Tor (anonymity network)

Tor
Tor-logo-2011-flat.svg
Developer(s) The Tor Project, Inc
Initial release 20 September 2002 (2002-09-20)
Stable release

0.2.9.8(19 December 2016; 31 days ago (2016-12-19))
0.2.8.12(19 December 2016; 31 days ago (2016-12-19))
0.2.7.6(11 December 2015; 13 months ago (2015-12-11))
0.2.6.10(12 July 2015; 17 months ago (2015-07-12))
0.2.5.12(7 April 2015; 21 months ago (2015-04-07))

0.2.4.27(7 April 2015; 21 months ago (2015-04-07))
Preview release 0.3.0.1-alpha(19 December 2016; 31 days ago (2016-12-19))
Repository gitweb.torproject.org/tor.git
Development status Active
Written in C,Python
Operating system
Size 2–4 MB
Type Onion routing, Anonymity
License BSD
Website torproject.org
Tor Browser
Tor Browser Bundle start page.png
Tor Browser on Linux Mint showing its start page - about:tor
Developer(s) Tor Project
Stable release 6.0.8(13 December 2016; 37 days ago (2016-12-13))
Preview release 6.5-alpha-6(13 December 2016; 37 days ago (2016-12-13))
Development status Active
Operating system
Engine Gecko
Size 32–41 MB
Available in 16 languages
Type Onion routing, Anonymity, Web browser, Feed reader
License GPL
Website www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html
Tor Messenger
Tor-messenger.svg
Developer(s) The Tor Project
Initial release 29 October 2015; 14 months ago (2015-10-29)
Preview release
0.3.0-beta-2 / 29 December 2016; 21 days ago (2016-12-29)
Repository https://gitweb.torproject.org/tor-messenger-build.git
Development status Active
Written in C/C++, JavaScript, CSS, XUL
Operating system
Available in English
Website

0.2.9.8(19 December 2016; 31 days ago (2016-12-19))
0.2.8.12(19 December 2016; 31 days ago (2016-12-19))
0.2.7.6(11 December 2015; 13 months ago (2015-12-11))
0.2.6.10(12 July 2015; 17 months ago (2015-07-12))
0.2.5.12(7 April 2015; 21 months ago (2015-04-07))

Tor is free software for enabling anonymous communication. The name is derived from an acronym for the original software project name "The Onion Router". Tor directs Internet traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than seven thousand relays to conceal a user's location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis. Using Tor makes it more difficult for Internet activity to be traced back to the user: this includes "visits to Web sites, online posts, instant messages, and other communication forms". Tor's use is intended to protect the personal privacy of users, as well as their freedom and ability to conduct confidential communication by keeping their Internet activities from being monitored.

Onion routing is implemented by encryption in the application layer of a communication protocol stack, nested like the layers of an onion. Tor encrypts the data, including the destination IP address, multiple times and sends it through a virtual circuit comprising successive, randomly selected Tor relays. Each relay decrypts a layer of encryption to reveal only the next relay in the circuit in order to pass the remaining encrypted data on to it. The final relay decrypts the innermost layer of encryption and sends the original data to its destination without revealing, or even knowing, the source IP address. Because the routing of the communication is partly concealed at every hop in the Tor circuit, this method eliminates any single point at which the communicating peers can be determined through network surveillance that relies upon knowing its source and destination.


...
Wikipedia

...