Most people that surf the internet do not realize exactly what is going on behind the scenes of many of the website they visit. Did you know you are being watched and tracked? Many websites use what is known as traffic analysis to spy on visitors. These spy techniques will allow websites to gather information such as who you are, what country you live in, and even those you talk with online.
This information can be used for all kinds of situations such as have higher prices for items you wish to purchase due to your national origin or learn information about your company if you log into a company computer to check your email. You may not believe this can be done, as you know that all the information you send is being encrypted for your protection, however, this is not true. Traffic analysis grabs the header of the email, the audio file, or the webpage. In this header is quite a bit of information that you may not wish to divulge such as the source, size, time, and the destination to name just a few items that will be disclosed.
Tor will enable you to improve your security and your privacy through a network of virtual tunnels. This unique software program aids in providing a way for individuals and companies to share information without worrying about privacy issues over any public network. This will allow companies as well as individuals to have more privacy while surfing the net including stopping websites from tracking your movements.
When you visit websites such as chat rooms, forums, websites with sensitive information for abuse victims or those suffering from illnesses such as alcoholism, you are being tracked, and much of the information you provide will go along with the tracking. When this occurs, private information that you do not wish others to see will be the hands of the websites that are tracking your movements. With Tor, you will not have to worry about any of this information being seen by others.
With Tor, you will have anonymous outgoing connections along with hidden services to protect not only your privacy but to give you more protection against traffic analysis attacks.
The downside of Tor is that it is an open source, those that provide the bandwidth for individuals and companies are using their own bandwidth to give users this freedom. So, remember, volunteers are paying for your bandwidth usage so be kind and do not transfer huge amounts of data when using the Tor network.
If you want to find out more about how Tor works click here.