What is Tor? A plain-language introduction
Tor is a free network that hides which sites you visit and where you are. Here is how it works, what it protects you from, and what it does not.
Author: Jesus Cordonero
Jesus Cordonero has been using Tor since 2013 - long enough to have watched onion addresses change format, seen the old link directories decay into phishing traps, and seen the same few mistakes catch people over and over. Not a cryptographer, and this site does not pretend otherwise. What it offers is twelve years of paying attention: what actually breaks, what the guides leave out, and which advice has aged badly. Technical claims follow the Tor Project's own documentation. Anything that turns out to be wrong gets corrected, and the correction is dated. Corrections are welcome and get credited.