The Tor protocol is open-source, meaning anyone can view the code and incorporate it into their own software. Today, Tor's original creators continue to support and update the protocol under the Tor Project, an independent, nonprofit organization that is partly funded by various arms of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory sponsored the development of onion routing in the 1990s, and Tor itself was developed by Navy and independent researchers in 2002. So it's best to be sure that a website offers some kind of SSL or TLS encryption, usually denoted by an 'https' instead of simply 'http' in the Web address, before trying to access it anonymously. That's because the data packet's destination lies outside the Tor network. In Tor, they are, which hides the sender and receiver of a given transmission.įurther, if you use the Tor Browser to visit a website that does not use encryption to secure users' connections, then your data packet will not be encrypted when it makes the final hop from the last Tor relay to the website's server. However, even when you use SSL or TLS, it's still possible for others to intercept those packets and see the information's metadata - who sent that encrypted information and who received it - because the addressing wrappers in SSL or TLS are not encrypted. For example, if you submit your credit card information to an online store, that information travels across the network in an encrypted state to prevent theft. Some regular Internet data packets are encrypted using a protocol called Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or its newer, stronger cousin Transport Layer Security (TLS).

That way, a data packet's path through the Tor network cannot be fully traced. The layers of encrypted address information used to anonymize data packets sent through Tor are reminiscent of an onion, hence the name. The relay then rewraps the package in a new wrapper and sends it on. MORE: 13 Security and Privacy Tips for the Truly ParanoidĮach relay decrypts only enough of the data packet wrapper to know which relay the data came from, and which relay to send it to next. The modified and encrypted data packet is then routed through many of these servers, called relays, on the way to its final destination.The roundabout way packets travel through the Tor network is akin to a person taking a roundabout path through a city to shake a pursuer.

Regular Internet connections don't do this. Finally, Tor encrypts the rest of the addressing information, called the packet wrapper.

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