I just don’t think Tor Browser is currently suited as a primary browser for most people. You lose things like staying logged into websites, you can’t (or at least shouldn’t) really add extensions like a good content blocker, you generally can’t tweak or customize the browser to your liking, etc. Plus factor in things like the slow speeds, being blocked by websites, bombarded with captchas everywhere, etc, and it just becomes a harder and harder sell for a lot of average people.
Tor Browser’s great and it absolutely has its need and purpose, I’m not trying to knock it for that at all because it works damn well for what it is and what it tries to do, but I just think its hard to be using as a primary browser and daily driver in its current form, at least for a lot of people.
I dont think this article is suggesting everyone use Tor Browser as their main browser (and if they are, thats obtuse), but that people use Tor / Tor Browser at all, even for just sensitive searches or websites that dont require a login.
So when I first learned about TOR almost 10 years ago in uni, it was said to be compromised to a significant extent by secret services holding entry and exit nodes.
Is that not true anymore?
Aren’t bridges meant to prevent that?
Iirc holding both the entry and exit of a routed connection, you can in theory match traffic going through, which would let you connect a user to the server/site they are connecting to. It might still be encrypted at that point, idk the details anymore.
No, bridges are meant to bypass censorship
Try i2p
Compare and use the right service for your needs: https://geti2p.net/en/comparison/tor
Interesting, ty
I also heared that bit about the secret service owning nodes a few years ago. It was trough a teacher that’s also really in the stuff outside of teaching, and has a network of non-teaching proffesionals in the field.
It’s something to keep in mind, at the very least. Tor already has some weaknesses anyways. You shouldn’t trust it blindly just because it’s Tor. If anything, I think it more has a false rep for how strong it is over struggling with a stigma.
It was pretty much the same context for me, yeah.
Opsec always applies
Most of the nodes are hosted by Tor Foundation itself
[citation needed]
Is there any way to check that?
Yup. You can check a lot of stat about a node on tor website. https://metrics.torproject.org/
If true, I’m not happy about that. I want lots of different owners so it’s harder to compromise the network by compromising a single entity.
I don’t think a single credible source has shown this to be a vulnerability. You’re talking about an attack that would cost, what, millions of dollars to run per day?
Dunno if it’s all that expensive when there are hundreds of nodes on several individual malicious networks confirmed https://nusenu.medium.com/how-malicious-tor-relays-are-exploiting-users-in-2020-part-i-1097575c0cac
You’d need much more than hundreds of nodes.
The graph tracks exit probability and the article speaks about the matter, especially what you’re referencing. Check it out.
Problem is that many sites don’t work because of anti-ddos and anti bot measures.
It is a pity
Cloudflare is pretty TOR-friendly, they even offer onion routing for your website.
Yeah, we need to make it illegal to block someone from doing a simple GET request just because they’re using a privacy tool.
It should only be legal to block access based on how you act, not based on how you look.
I would use it if it wasn’t so slow. I get that it’s slow because of the security, but that’s precisely the reason it can never be my primary browser.
I’d feel bad using the Tor network for everyday browsing. I think it should be reserved for people who really need it to protect themselves.
No. Use it for everyday tasks. If Tor is used by only people who need them, they will be easily detected. The whole reason US Navy released Tor to public was so normal users can scramble the usage detection. One more advantage is that right now lot of website block tor users if more users will use tor then they might stop it.
Won’t it cause browsing to much slower than it normally is?
More usage means more visibility which means more recognition and thus more funding
Maybe, but the added obfuscation is probably worth it to the people who need it.
It’s not meant to be a high performance browser amyway
A slower connection is better than ending up in prison, the re-education camps or worse, beheaded.
Without average Joe’s using it for nonsense Tor usage is basically a neon sign saying “I’m doing something worth hiding. Come and kill me.”
This is an incorrect, unrealistic way to view this. By using the Tor network normally (you argument certainly applies to doing overly traffic intensive tasks like torrenting over Tor) you are normalizing its use, protecting those who really rely on it. If the only people using Tor were criminals and people who needed the protection, listening on Wifi networks for connections to Tor could lead to immediate prosecution (look what the UK is trying to do with encrpytion, and that French case where all of the evidence against a suspect was use of open source technology like Tor.) By default, Tor does not hide the fact its being used from your network (thats what a bridge is for), so the more people use Tor, the safer everyone is.
If you really want to help those that need Tor’s protection, run Snowflake on your desktop or Orbot’s ‘kindness’ on Android. This allows users to use your device as a bridge, bypassing censorship in other countries / networks.
Sorry if my question is stupid, but can I use it as a “regular” browser (like Chrome, Mozilla, Opera, etc) on my Android smartphone?
Yes, but you lose all data after exit
Yes, that’s the point.
Thank you for the answer! :)
You can, but you really shouldn’t.
Why?
It’s meant for you to be completely anonymous. Logging in to stuff would defeat the whole purpose of TOR, as it would associate your activity with the account you logged into. When browsing sites without really needing to interact, it’s good, as the sites cannot track you easily.
There are many use-cases for Tor. One is anonymity. One is to bypass censorship. The most popular website on the darknet is Facebook.
It doesn’t “defeat the purpose” of using Tor in Tibet to access a Facebook page.
We’ll see if Google’s new efforts manage to kill the thing.
The US government would never allow Tor to die. They need it to conduct terrorism cyberwarfare
Is there an index of Tor network only sites?
Yes. Alec Muffett was the guy who setup the most popular Tor darkent site: Facebook. I think he did Twitter’s too. He maintains an excellent list.
Its good that not everyone uses it because otherwise the notes would run hot.
If more people use it there will be more nodes made. The reason tor isn’t fast or convenient is because it nitch and “underground”. Using the public net doesn’t have an adverse affect on the daily lives of 99.9999% of it’s users, so why would anyone look for alternatives?
