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Top 20 cities of users searching for “tor browser скачать” on Yandex. The Tor Project provides public statistics on user connections, and the results can be narrowed down to a specific country, which allows us to get an estimate of how many users in Russia use the Tor network. The network boasts over 4 million users worldwide (as of November 2013), including many tech activists in countries where online censorship and surveillance are common. The Tor browser anonymizes Internet traffic by sending it through a unique configuration of nodes known as an onion routing system. Navy, Tor is now run by a nonprofit group, though it continues to receive federal funding. Initially a research project funded by the U.S. The Tor browser is one of the most popular anonymizing tools used globally to access content that might be blocked or blacklisted, as well as to preserve user privacy. Lawrence Alexander uses open data to examine the rapid growth in Tor use on the RuNet-and to ask what might be driving this trend. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.Īs a new United Nations report recognizes encryption software and anonymizing tools as “essential to free speech,” the Russian authorities are toughening their stance on anonymity software.
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Data from search engines mirrors Tor's own statistics: more and more Russian users show interest.
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