Service for secure Internet access and anonymous communication, Tor began raising funds for project development. This is due to the desire of the service to get rid of dependence on state funding sources. Among the main sources – the Ministry of defense and the U.S. Department of state. Tor previously did not accept donations.
On the project site page appeared, where Director Laura Poitras tells how important Tor for users who want to anonymously pass information. According to her, Tor without her never would have turned Edward Snowden, and she never would about him the film.
Now Tor is 90% sponsored by the U.S. government. Who is funding the remaining 10% of requirements, not specified.
Invited to donate any amount. The default is 10, 23, $00, 256 and 500 dollars. The money is deducted from the credit card through the PayPal service. The user can make a one-time donation or set up a monthly withdrawal for the selected amount from the card. A donation can also be done with the help of payment systems Dwolla and Bitcoin, as well as by cash or cheque — the payment details are listed on the project website.
The Tor project develops and maintains the Tor Browser, based on Firefox. It allows users to go online anonymously, the traffic flowing from origin (primary server) to the destination (the user PC) and in the reverse direction through a chain of nodes. The principle of operation of a network is that information about the address of the previous node at each new node, where the data came. Thus, no one can know where the request came to the server, i.e. how and with what the PC people went online.
Some countries (e.g., China and Belarus) are trying to block Tor. Other countries — USA and Russia — are trying to crack the encryption system. In October 2015 the Tor project has released an Android messenger app based on this technology and has announced a version for iOS devices.
