What Is TOR Browser - Explained (How To Use IT)

Tor Browser is a free software that enables you to browse the internet anonymously. The word TOR stands for “The Onion Router”. The initial release of this web browser was back in September 20, 2002. It is coded in Rust, C and Python and around 55 MB of size. Tor is a secure anonymizing network that aims to offer privacy, and hence protection, to anyone who needs it for any reason.

Onion Routing Process

When using TOR browser your IP address will bounce from one location to another which will let you browse anonymously. This process is also called “Onion Routing”. It was actually made for government agencies to browse securely and anonymously over the net. But bad people like black hat hackers, criminals, terrorist use it for bad purpose like selling drugs, guns, child pornography, hitman providing, red room activities etc.

Is Tor browser is illegal?

No. Mostly No.

Think about it this way:

Cars, which are perfectly legal, are used by many criminals to do all sorts of crimes.

Computers, which are also perfectly legal, are used by hackers.

So basically, anything that is legal can be used for illegal things.

The same goes with Tor and the Deep Web. Tor is used to stay anonymous, and it is used by government agencies. However, criminals also use it. If Tor was illegal just because criminals use it on the Deep Web/Dark Web, it would be like cars being illegal just because they are used to commit crimes such as robbery, kidnapping, and pretty much every other crime out there, as well as being used to flee the police. And it’s sounds funnyyyyyyy.......

But you shouldn’t let any of that stop you. Tor has a lot of very real, very important uses such as helping people living in a oppressive regime (like the ones that ban Tor) communicate and share information. Internet is heavily censored for a very large number of users. Tor is the answer. Almost all recent whistle-blowers (For example: Edward Snow-den or Chelsea Manning) have used Tor to leak information that has changed the course of history for the better.

Also Read: Why you shouldn't visit Dark Web

But before using TOR I suggest you some basics to know what you need to browse anonymously:-

1. Use tor browser only for the browsing purposes.

2. Don't use Torrent over tor.

3. Don't install any plug-ins.

4. Use HTTPS versions of the website.

5. Don't connect to any of the bridge connections over the internet.

6. Also, don’t use it in full window mode because it might effect your privacy, and your IP might be visible over the web.

Benefits of using TOR Browser –

There may be situation when we need to be anonymous on the internet so that we can maintain a privacy while surfing the web, but also we must take precautions so that our privacy is safe or else the web is also having disastrous evils who can hack your data or breach your privacy, and in all these cases tor browser will help you. Say for example China has banned Facebook, but by using TOR you can browse Facebook in china also.

1.  To browse the web pages anonymously.

2. To browse the websites that are not available in a particular region.

3. To browse dot(.)onion links.

4. To browse the deep and dark web.

5. To post something anonymously.

6. To get various and important news that are normally not available on clear net.

Also Read :- What is Red Room in Deep Web

Disadvantages of using Tor -

I can barely say that there are there are any flaws. But if you use it to visit the dark web links and have downloaded something from there then it may be dangerous. Most of the time the new users, without gaining the full knowledge about the dark web, visit it and download the vulnerable files which let the hacker to control your system. So I suggest you should have minimum basics idea about the net before using the TOR and don’t ever download anything from dark net.

Conclusion:-

TOR gets its bad rap because it’s a service making users anonymous. However, as long as you’re using TOR for perfectly legal reasons, you have nothing to worry about. Just like a knife or a gun, a tool itself isn’t illegal. It’s how you use it which will determine whether what you do is legal or not.