Re: encrypting your communications?!

[Roger Dingledine <arma@xxxxxxx>]

On Sat, Nov 17, 2007 at 12:13:34PM +0000, Robert Hogan wrote:
> "Tor protects you by encrypting your communications and bouncing them around a 
> distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world."
> 
> I think this sentence is misleading. It is hard to interpret 'encrypting your 
> communications' as meaning anything other than exactly that: Tor somehow 
> encrypts all your communications, full stop.
> 
> It should be changed to something like:
> 
> "Tor protects you by hiding the origin of your communications. It does this by 
> bouncing them around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all 
> around the world."

Gah. You're right.

I've changed the offending sentence to:

"Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed
network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents
somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you
visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning where you're
coming from."

I don't want to only say that it hides the origin of your communication,
because a lot of people out there use Tor to gain protection from a
local attacker, and "hides the origin" is only half the story.

(Actually, it's only a third of the story -- the last third that I've
left out is that Tor is resistant to any single relay learning both your
location and your destination. But there's only so much you can fit into
an introductory paragraph.)

If anybody wants to propose alternate frontpage text, do feel free. :)

Thanks!
--Roger