VPN and Tor?
You often talk about the benefits of using a VPN. However, most of them seem to cost money. While I don’t object to paying for extra privacy and safety, a friend recently told me about the Tor web browser ( www.torproject.org), saying that for most people it’d probably do just as well as a VPN – but that it was free. However, he couldn’t really explain the specific ways in which Tor was better or different to a VPN. Can you help me out here?
There’s plenty of crossover but if you’re looking for a condensed answer then it is this: a VPN (such a NORDVPN – see screenshot above right) hides all your computer’s internet ‘traffic’ behind an IP address other than the one assigned by your internet-service provider, while Tor does the same but only what you do within the Tor browser.
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a service that’s typically accessed by installing a small app on your computer. Your computer’s online activity – from web browsing to email and downloads – is encrypted and routed through an IP address that belongs to the operator of the VPN service. Your data is secure in transit, and nothing you do can be easily tracked back to your IP address
But ‘easily’ is the operative word. If for whatever reason a law-enforcement agency served notice on a VPN then it might have to reveal details of your account and activities that had been conducted through its servers, meaning websites you’ve visited could be revealed. So, the VPN’S anonymity might turn out to be nothing more than a veneer.
Tor, on the other hand, is stronger on the anonymity front, but strictly within the Tor browser. The name originally stood for ‘The Onion Router’, which is a loose description of the way the Tor browser works – routing your inbrowser activities through multiple server layers, each of which strips originating IP address data from the last. In this way, it is practically impossible for the end website to ever know the IP address of the originating request (ie, your computer).
Want to know the difference between technical terms? Email noproblem@ computeractive.co.uk