At the beginning of May Russia’s Interior Ministry (MVD) has posted a tender to study the possibility of obtaining technical information about users (user equipment) TOR anonymous network. It is not the first attempt of the Russian Government to limit somehow the use of Tor network.

According to the proponents of the network anonymity, this information may be important to determine the identity of child pornography distributors or drug dealers who find customers on Tor.

According to the data on torproject.org, the number of the network users exceeds 2 million people. 13% of users are from the USA, 8.7% – from Germany, 6.25% – from France, 5.7% – from Brazil and 5.5% from Russia.

Tor can provide anonymity of servers as well as wiring. This allows to create hidden resources on pseudo-domains .onion of the top-level. These resources are also used to commit unlawful acts like the distribution of child pornography, drugs and arms trafficking, money laundering, botnets control, hacker attacks and organization of assassinations.

However, the proponents of the network anonymity say that Tor is typically used by “ordinary people” for secure access to usual websites and not by online predators who want to get access to the hidden resources. The service allows to protect data against unfair marketing; hide the location of children when they use the Internet; access to essential online resources in countries where there is censorship; protect against surveillance.

With the help of Tor, journalists can save not only their anonymity, but the anonymity of their source of information, too. This allows both of them to avoid prosecution for the publication of information of public interest. Journalists and bloggers from countries where there is censorship, with the help of Tor can get access to confidential information and distribute it anonymously. For example, the Anti-Corruption Fund led by Alexei Navalny in June launched Blackbox service, which allows to send anonymous information through Tor.

On torproject.org it is also reported that military and law enforcement agencies use Tor to hide their location and to conduct investigative and intelligence activities. And, of course, anonymous network is necessary for political activists and the informants. In its work Tor uses the largest human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Source: theRunet