What is Tor – Tor Browser, Dark Web Explained [Updated 2023]

Tor is basically a network which hides the web traffic in order to provide the maximum level of private web browsing. Tor hides the privacy in such a manner that an onion is hidden in its layer after layer therefore, the tor is also known as the onion router.

The most important work which tor plays is it hides your IP address and browsing activities by redirecting them through various series (like onion layers) of different – different routers which are known as nodes.

This technique of anonymizing web traffic was originally generated by the US Navy to help protect American communications and in today’s world tor has become an open–source, privacy platform which is available to all the people around.

There is a wide reason behind the tor browsing being famous enough is that it not only provides privacy to the website but also to the visitors, basically the ones whose visiting the website on an regular basis.

Their identities cannot be leaked at any how makes the browser more suitable and convenient for people to use with full of trust.

The unlikely history of Tor

The main principle of tor was generated in the middle of 1990s by the United States Naval Research Laboratory to protect American intelligence communications online.

There have been noticed weaknesses in the process but with the help of lot of intelligence all such things are improved on regular basis and has become worldwide in order to provide safety to the website as well as the visitors.

Public tool instead of secret weapon

There is a huge reason for the involvement of the government in tor project was to hide their information as nothing else can do this in the world.

The government is still using the network to make something unclear and something which is more difficult to understand the source of attacks which usually happens on the government work in order to obtain their information for the next further step.

But the information or the details which have been put under this network won’t let the information to be leaked as it is stored after many layers which will take a lot of time to detect such layers of the browser.

Therefore, this tool is not only specifically given to the higher post people as a secret weapon but also available to all the laymen to protect their on privacy as a public tool.

How does Tor, the web browser works?

Tor browser which hides the data and uses onion routing web traffic through Tor’s onion network.

When the data is secured inside multiple layers of encryption, till then web traffic is transmitted through a multiple series of network nodes called onion routers.

One by one each router peels away a layer( like an onion ) of encryption until the data reaches the final destination, till then its fully decrypted.

The work done by tor is called anonymously done, which means that no identification of the person through whom the work or the encryption has been done, where tor transmits encrypted data across the three layers called peer-to-peer (p2p) of international proxies which builds up the tor circuit.

Let’s see what all are three layers of network nodes which has to be peeled for decryption.

1. Entry/Guard Node

First of all tor browser randomly gets connected to any of the publicly known entry node where this specific node introduces your data into tor circuit first layer.

2. Middle Nodes

When the data has already been known through the entry node then reaches to the middle node where the data is fully encrypted. thereafter it is sent to the series of node where the data is encrypted layer after layer at a time.

To ensure anonymity the middle node can only get to know the identity of the preceding and the subsequent middle nodes.

3. Exit Nodes

When the whole data has already been encrypted by the middle node then the last option left is the exit node where the last layer of encryption is peeled off, the decrypted data leaves the tor network through an exit node and reaches its final server destination.

This is the whole process that how Tor browser works, how the data encryption and decryption is done through the different series of nodes.