Of course, if you ever use Tor to access illegal content (child pornography, drug trades, contract killer websites), you can get in serious trouble with the law.īut not all the content on the deep web is of that nature. So, it might be possible to assume that countries that ban or make VPNs illegal have the same stance on Tor. While we didn’t find any specific laws regarding Tor, you should keep in mind that laws are usually vague when it comes to stuff like this. The Tor devs make it clear that “Tor is not illegal anywhere in the world.” The website you access will only see the IP address of the exit node. Once it reaches the exit node, it’s completely decrypted and forwarded to the web.īesides encrypting your traffic, Tor will also hide your IP address, replacing it with the address of its servers. Each time it hits a node, it losses a layer of encryption. The network encrypts your traffic multiple times. Usually, your traffic will go through at least three servers: the entry node, middle node, and exit node. To access the network, you need to use the Tor browser, which is both free and open-source.Īs for how it works, it’s pretty simple – when you connect to the network, it routes your traffic through different servers (called relays). It’s an anonymity network (at least that’s how it calls itself) that’s run by volunteers. First Things First – What Is Tor & How Does It Work?

Of course, things aren’t as simple as a basic “no.” So, let’s take a look at Tor – how it works, why it isn’t as safe as it claims to be, what other inconveniences you need to deal with, and what you can do to make it more secure overall.

To make a long story short, no, Tor really isn’t too safe to use on the web if you want great privacy and security. It makes a lot of promises, after all – online anonymity, complete privacy, secure encryption, unrestricted access, and so on. With nearly two million people using it, the Tor network is one of the most popular ways to anonymize your online browsing right now.īut you got to wonder – is Tor safe, actually?

How to use tor safely 2015