Tor is an indispensable tool for circumventing surveillance and browsing anonymously, which is of paramount importance for the protection of freedom of expression online. Via an ingenious network of Tor nodes, Tor allows users to browse the web anonymously, making it a crucial tool for journalists, activists, whistleblowers, and internet users in countries like China, Iran, Russia and Syria. Tor is also used by regular internet users concerned about their privacy.
Tor makes surveillance of your internet traffic by governments, companies and criminals much harder. This diagram clearly indicates what Tor protects you against. Even though Tor is not a one-stop shop for being secure online, browsing using the Tor Browser Bundle on your Mac or PC, or Orbot on your Android phone, can drastically improve your privacy online.
Some internet service providers, networks and countries block access to the Tor network, as Ethiopia [1] Iran [2], and Kazakhstan [3] have done in the past year. For users in these countries and circumstances, there is a special way to connect to the network: using Tor Bridges.
ARTICLE 19 is very proud to announce that, in cooperation with Torservers, it now provides 250 bridges to the Tor network. With this we’re providing access to the Tor network to thousands of people who most need it.
Learn more about digital security from Security in a Box.
If your access to Tor is restricted, you can access a bridge by visiting https://bridges.torproject.org/ with your web browser. If this page is filtered for you, and you don’t have any other proxies or other ways to reach it, you can send an email to [email protected].
[1] Runa Sandvik, “Ethiopia Introduces Deep Packet Inspection”, The Tor Blog, 31 May 2012. Available at: blog.torproject.org/blog/ethiopia-introduces-deep-packet-inspection.
[2] “Phobos”, “Iran partially blocks encrypted network traffic”, The Tor Blog, 10 February 2012. Available at: blog.torproject.org/blog/iran-partially-blocks-encrypted-network-traffic
[3] “Phobos”, “Kazakhstan upgrades censorship to deep packet inspection”, The Tor Blog, 16 February 2012. Available at blog.torproject.org/blog/kazakhstan-upgrades-censorship-deep-packet-inspection