Tor (The Onion Router)

Tor routes web traffic through three volunteer-run relays in sequence: an entry guard, a middle relay, and an exit. Each relay only knows the previous and next hop — never the full path. The entry sees your IP; the exit sees your destination; no single party sees both. Routes are torn down and rebuilt every ~10 minutes. Tor's threat model is unique: it protects against an adversary who can see *some* of the network but not all of it. Against a global passive adversary who can correlate traffic at both ends, Tor offers limited protection. For most threat models — ad networks, ISPs, ordinary surveillance — Tor is the strongest practical anonymity tool. Tor is free, open source, and runs as a network of ~7,000 volunteer relays globally. Use it via Tor Browser (bundled with hardened Firefox), or layer it under other applications via SOCKS proxy. Tor is slow by design — three encrypted hops add latency. Wrong tool for streaming or video calls. Right tool for sensitive web browsing.