TOR, EGYPT AND ANONYMITY

Below another great photo courtesy of The Independent. Protesters in Cairo fleeing tear gas

Following on from the previous piece on authoritarian governnments' ability to cut their citizens off from access to internet, there was a very interesting and explanatory piece in the Boston Globe Sunday, discussing TOR, which I refer to below:

TOR is a piece of free software to enable anonymity on line. It prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning who you are.
It was formed in 2001 after two MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) students developed the  software with a US Navy laboratory.

According to the Executive Director of Tor, over the past 3 days 120,000 people, most of them Egyptian, have downloaded Tor software. It helps activists protect their identity from surveillance by repressive regimes, and get around blocked sites.

 Since only the most internet savvy know how to use such software, there is enormous value in training people to use it,  said John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University.

 Iranian activists downloaded its software en masse duirng the massive protests after the contested 2009 presidential elections.  Chinas has repeatedly tried to block Tor downloads and denied visas to the Tor activists who have trained people from over 20 countries, in workshops in Hong Kong and Europe.

 One of Tor's main software developers, Jacob Appelbaum, traveled to Cairo at the end of 2009 to hold workshops on how to use the software.  The training clearly paid off, because before the internet 'died' in Egypt last Thursday,  so many people rushed to download TOR that one of its servers crashed.

 A few pathways to the net have remained,  including one ISP (Internet Service Provider) which services banks or the Egyptian stock market.

 To read the original article, google Boston Globe and search for Foreign Activists Stay Coverered Online by Farah Stockman, Jan 30,2011.