VPNS ARE ADVERTISED as being a boost for privacy, security, and anonymity. Those nouns may well apply in particular situations. But it’s hard to call a VPN an anonymous service when you have to sign up with a very un-anonymous credit card. And it’s hard to say for sure if they’re private or secure if you’re talking about a bunch of effectively centralized servers that no one can audit. Fortunately, there are alternatives, including one you’ve probably already heard of, Tor (formerly known as The Onion Router).
Similar to a VPN, Tor proxies traffic through encrypted tunnels, obfuscating users’ IP addresses. It’s different, though, because no one entity owns Tor.
Anyone can run a Tor node and anyone can connect to it for free,
