And regular folks like you and I use it when we just want to feel like we're doing everything we can to make sure our online activities aren't being snooped on by anyone.

In fact, when Tor was first being developed in the 1990s, a major goal was to protect intelligence communications. Military and law enforcement agencies use Tor, too, to keep online activities on the QT. Victims of violent crimes might turn to Tor to engage in confidential discussions with a support group. It is a completely free, open-source browser. Citizens who live in countries where internet access is heavily restricted use Tor to bypass those restrictions. The Tor browser, also known as the onion browser or dark web browser, is an abbreviation of the The Onion Router. Journalists, for example, use Tor to protect the identities of their sources - and themselves - when they're following leads online. Yes, shoppers who frequent underground marketplaces on the Dark Web (like The Silk Road and AlphaBay) use Tor, but there are plenty of other reasons people use it. For more technical details on how Tor works, you can check out the exhaustive FAQ on the Tor Project website. Download Onion Browser from the App Store.

Tor web app