Tor (Collier 2024) — A Book Review
Imagine being on a crowded Indian train, where every conversation overlaps, chai vendors shout offers, and the hum of life never stops. You pull out your phone, searching for a moment of digital escape, only to find half the sites blocked or monitored. In a world where everything feels watched, how would it feel to browse the internet as freely as chatting with friends over a cup of masala chai at a roadside stall? Ben Collier’s Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy dives into the technology that promises just that — a way to reclaim online freedom and privacy. Born out of the U.S. Navy’s need for secrecy, Tor has become a symbol of resistance, used by everyone from activist journalists dodging government censors to teenagers watching videos without intrusive ads. But here’s the twist: can you ever really hide on the internet?
What if your journey across the internet were like trying to send a letter without leaving any trace — no names on the envelope, no addresses, just the assurance that it would reach its destination safe and unread? This isn’t just a whimsical “what if”; it’s the premise of Tor, the mysterious technology at the heart of Ben Collier’s book, “Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy.” Collier takes us deep into this strange digital universe, unpacking its story and showing how it became a touchstone for online freedom, resistance, and controversy.
Picture this: Collier himself, a seasoned scholar from Cambridge’s prestigious halls, once sat on a train, Wi-Fi teetering between existence and oblivion, trying to access the Tor Project website only to be blocked. That moment sets the stage for an exploration that unearths paradoxes more tangled than an Indian market street during festival time. Collier’s research is steeped in interviews, thousands of archival pages, and real-life encounters with the Tor community — a web of hackers, activists, journalists, and everyday users who all see this technology in vastly different ways.
Tor, or The Onion Router, is more than a technological tool; it’s a cultural artifact born from conflicting values. Imagine a tool initially crafted in the US Naval Research Lab, meant to safeguard military communications, that ended up in the hands of journalists exposing truths in Russia or everyday folks just seeking a little privacy online. Here’s the kicker: despite its rebellious undertones, it has also been funded by the very government it shields people from. This irony is akin to a landlord installing multiple locks for the safety of the tenants but complaining when they use the locks to keep him out.
Collier, through the pages, makes you understand that the internet isn’t as “flat” as we think. It’s layered, like those oversized aloo parathas at a dhaba, where each bite carries the risk of surprise — sometimes delightful, sometimes less so. Tor is designed to let users navigate this layered landscape while dodging the eyes of surveillance giants — whether government agencies or corporate behemoths.
The design itself is ingenious. It routes your web traffic through a labyrinth of servers, bouncing signals like a message passed secretly under tables at a college canteen to confuse any snooper. This form of digital hide-and-seek is powered by volunteer-run servers, meaning anyone — from a privacy enthusiast in Norway to an activist in Egypt — can be a part of Tor’s infrastructure. Collier portrays this network as fragile but resilient, like an intricate spiderweb that resists even the harshest storms.
But Tor isn’t just about noble pursuits. The same mechanism that shields activists and whistleblowers also harbors darker corners of the internet — the so-called Dark Web, home to illegal marketplaces and unsavory activities. Collier acknowledges this but steers clear of sensationalism, emphasizing that most Tor users are just people wanting a sliver of the 1990s internet — a space where you could browse without an algorithm deciding what you wanted to see before you knew it yourself. It’s a digital refuge where privacy isn’t just a luxury but a shield against the ever-watchful eyes of state power and corporate greed.
It’s here that Collier’s writing shines, as he explains the cultural dissonance within the Tor community itself. Some are staunch privacy advocates, akin to the Indian grandparent who insists on keeping the details of family matters within the house. Others are more like the curious young coder who breaks things not to harm but to understand and improve them. These factions debate, collaborate, and clash, reflecting a wider societal tension: Is privacy a fundamental right or a privilege that should be controlled?
A memorable anecdote Collier shares involves Russian citizens accessing the BBC through Tor after the Kremlin blocked the broadcaster. It’s like the scene in a Bollywood film where a determined character finds a hidden path to deliver a message to the hero, outmaneuvering the villain’s guards. The human need to communicate, unrestricted, proves more potent than any imposed block.
Ben Collier’s own path toward becoming an expert on this topic speaks to his deep-rooted curiosity. A product of rigorous academic training and fueled by an enduring fascination with the intersections of culture and technology, Collier doesn’t just present dry facts; he injects life into them. You can almost hear him chuckle as he notes the contradictions inherent in a project where U.S. government funding coincides with anti-surveillance activism.
And yet, the most compelling part of “Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy” is not just the stories it tells but the questions it leaves you with. Collier dives into whether privacy can ever be absolute. He wrestles with the idea of whether true anonymity is an illusion, a utopian ideal that fractures under the sheer weight of modern surveillance infrastructure. Even with Tor, the balance is precarious, always tilting between liberty and oversight, between empowering the vulnerable and enabling the rogue.
As you reach the final pages, you’re left wondering: If privacy is power, who should wield it? And in a world where technology keeps evolving, how will the battle between visibility and invisibility shape the internet we use tomorrow?
Reference
Collier, B. (2024). Tor. In The MIT Press eBooks. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14907.001.0001
