When Edward Snowden dropped the atomic truth bomb last spring that Obama’s National Security Agency is spying on everything with a pulse, people the world over looked for ways to secure their privacy online. One such safe haven is Tor, an anonymous web browser. However, it didn’t take long for the NSA to begin keeping tabs on Tor users — assuming that they must only want online privacy because they’re up to nefarious things — and Tor isn’t very happy about it:
In an interview with The Guardian, Tor’s chief executive Andrew Lewman expressed some of his concerns about the internet in the post-Snowden era. Lewman basically told the paper that Tor is struggling to scale and suggests that spy agencies are part of the problem. “It’s been co-opted by GCHQ and the NSA that if you’re using Tor, you must be a criminal,” said Lewman. “I know the NSA and [British spy agency] GCHQ want you to believe that Tor users are already suspect, because, you know, god forbid who would want their privacy online, they must be terrorists.”
We already knew this, but it’s interesting. Authorities’ interest in tracking Tor users is only getting more aggressive. The FBI has recently been busy planting malware in Tor users’ computers. It’s for a good cause! But still. It’s part of a larger movement that’s peeling back the layers of an anonymous internet tool that many non-criminals now depend on to stay safe, and the idea that government hackers could strip them of their anonymity is very scary. We know that it’s possible.
The good news is that more awareness is being raised about Tor. Musician Aphex Twin teased his first album in a decade over Tor last week, drawing over 133,000 views. However, the question remains: Will we ever be allowed to browse in privacy again?