Beyond Anonymity: Advanced Privacy Protection for Tor Networks

The Tor network operates on a fundamental principle that often goes unnoticed: community trust.

Every day, millions of users rely on volunteer operators around the world to maintain their privacy and security.

This trust forms the backbone of one of the internet's most important privacy tools.

I've been a long-time user and public advocate for the Tor Project for as long as I can remember.

In my earliest experiences with Tor, I ran a relay server on my home internet connection.

At the time, I didn't have the greatest internet performance or bandwidth.

My contributions were often frustrating as the server was constantly overloaded, consuming nearly all available bandwidth on my substandard home connection.

After a brief but committed stint, I abandoned the idea.

However, I always intended to return to Tor as a server operator once I had better capacity and understanding of how to run servers properly and securely.

This brings us to one of Tor's most critical aspects: security.

Tor isn't just about users connecting to enjoy one of the most secure and anonymous connections available to internet users, for free.

It's equally about the community of operators working behind the scenes.

Many Tor server operators choose to keep their activities private, telling no one about their contributions.

This is a perfectly acceptable choice.

The Tor community—comprising both users and operators—represents one of the most diverse ecosystems of any global project.

I am a Tor server operator.

Only this year, after many years of advocating for Tor and enjoying its benefits solely as a user, I returned to operating Tor servers.

My motivation for returning was driven by my ability to finally give back to a community from which I have taken so much over the years.

This time, I didn't return with a half-hearted commitment to simply pick up where I had left off prematurely.

This time, I would do it properly.

I currently operate three servers on the network: two relay servers, one exit-node, and a Snowflake proxy.

Additionally, I run Ooniprobe through automated cron jobs to provide network metrics to the Tor network.

I constantly monitor all server metrics to maintain performance and bandwidth throughput.

Most of the time, this requires no interaction—only monitoring.

When something needs attention, I'm always on standby to keep the servers online and traffic flowing.

Before discussing my technical setup, I want to return to my opening point: the Tor network relies heavily on trust that server operators are doing right by users.

This includes not just handling traffic passing through servers responsibly, but also managing logs and all aspects of privacy correctly.

Most server operators are doing the right thing.

Operating Tor servers offers no monetary compensation, requires significant time and resources when done properly, and is usually driven purely by passion for the cause.

There is little gain to be had from not doing the right thing, as the embedded natural security of Tor operations protects most users from traffic manipulation.

I take my role as an operator of multiple Tor servers extremely seriously.

More precisely, I take the privacy and security of my users very seriously.

This commitment is especially important when you consider that users on the Tor network are most likely visiting websites they'd prefer prying eyes not to see or log.

This reality is evident from some of the domains I see queried originating from my exit-node.

Depending on an operator's server configuration and networking infrastructure, how they control their servers varies greatly.

I use split tunneling—a sophisticated approach that adds extra privacy layers.

My efforts to protect my users go way beyond what I have to do and even more way beyond what most operators will go to.

Despite good intentions, some server operators have lazily rolled out servers while paying very little attention to security improvements.

Tor traffic enters and exits my network through one access point, but DNS requests from traffic on the exit-node are handled through my ShadowSentry system.

My ShadowSentry system is configured to use a carefully selected DNS forwarding system using only upstream servers which provide encryption and no-logging of queries.

This configuration only affects the exit-node and has no impact on traffic passing through my relay servers simply because of the natural difference between how relays and exit-nodes direct traffic.

Not only does this allow users to benefit from strict security and ad-blocking implemented through ShadowSentry, but it also adds an additional anonymity layer for exit-node users and myself, as connections exit through a completely separate access point, further disguising the origin of DNS queries.

I've also tightened log retention settings—DNS queries are maintained on the server for no more than 30 days before being cleared.

This is a complex configuration to maintain and required extensive trial and error before deploying it across the network more broadly.

But now that it's working properly, it's absolutely worth the effort.

As I've emphasized, I take my role as a server operator on the Tor network very seriously.

Nothing is more important to me than maintaining the privacy and security of my users.

I will never reveal any identifying information about my users, including IP addresses, Tor server names, or DNS queries, unless compelled under law to do so.

This commitment reflects the trust that forms the foundation of the entire Tor ecosystem.

The Tor network's strength lies not in its technology alone, but in the community of dedicated individuals who maintain it.

Every server operator, whether running a simple single relay or a complex exit-node configuration such as I have deployed, contributes to a global infrastructure that protects privacy and promotes internet freedom.

By sharing my journey and technical approach, I hope to encourage others to consider contributing to this vital network—whether as users, advocates, or operators.

The future of online privacy depends on communities like ours, built on trust and sustained by commitment to our shared values.