Tor Browser Explained

Interest in Tor Browser is growing as more people question how much of their online activity can be seen, tracked or restricted. In the UK, debates about age verification, website blocking and online privacy have made tools such as VPNs and Tor far more relevant to ordinary internet users.

But Tor is still widely misunderstood. It is often described simply as a way to access the “dark web”, when it can also be used to visit completely ordinary websites with greater privacy.

In the video below, I install Tor Browser, show what happens to your IP address and explain how the Tor circuit works in practice.

What is Tor Browser?

Tor Browser is a free, privacy-focused browser based on Mozilla Firefox. Instead of connecting directly to a website, it sends your browser traffic through the Tor network—a worldwide collection of relays operated by volunteers.

A typical Tor connection passes through three relays. The first, known as the guard relay, can see your IP address but not the website you are visiting. The middle relay passes the encrypted traffic onwards, while the final exit relay connects to the destination website.

The website sees the exit relay’s IP address rather than your own. Crucially, no single relay should know both who you are and where you are going.

Is Tor the same as a VPN?

Tor and VPNs can both hide your real IP address from websites, but they work differently.

A VPN sends your traffic through one encrypted connection to a VPN provider. This is usually faster and can protect traffic from most apps on your device, but it means placing considerable trust in one company.

Tor distributes that trust across several independently operated relays. This can provide stronger anonymity in some circumstances, but the additional journey makes browsing slower. Some websites also show more CAPTCHAs or block Tor exit addresses entirely.

Tor Browser normally protects only activity inside the browser. It does not automatically route your email program, games or other applications through Tor.

Does using Tor mean visiting the dark web?

No. Tor Browser can open normal websites such as news sites, search engines and forums. If you visit an ordinary .com or .co.uk website through Tor, you are still browsing the regular web—just through the Tor network.

Tor can also reach special .onion services that are unavailable through conventional browsers. Some contain illegal material, but the technology also has legitimate uses. News organisations, for example, use onion services to help sources communicate more safely and to make information accessible where their normal websites are blocked.

What Tor does not protect you from

Tor improves privacy, but it does not make anyone completely anonymous. If you sign into a personal account, enter your name or reveal identifying information, that website may still know who you are. Tor also cannot protect a device that is already infected with spyware or malware.

You should download Tor Browser only from the official Tor Project website and keep it updated. Avoid installing extra browser extensions, as they can make your browser easier to identify. The Tor Project also strongly advises against torrenting over Tor because it can expose users’ real IP addresses and places a heavy load on the volunteer network.

For everyday browsing, a conventional browser or VPN may be faster and more convenient. When the priority is making browsing harder to trace back to your normal IP address, however, Tor Browser remains one of the most accessible privacy tools available.