Why Your Online Privacy Needs You to Try the Tor Browser (Even Occasionally)

I’ve been online since the early 1990s, when connecting meant listening to the screech of a dial-up modem and waiting minutes for a single image to load. The web has changed dramatically since then. Today, we move through billions of websites, rich with multimedia, almost instantaneously. Yet what began as a network for sharing information has quietly become a surveillance machine.

The same devices that connect us to nearly all human knowledge also track our clicks, purchases, and conversations. While convenience has skyrocketed, we’ve traded something fundamental: the ability to browse the internet without being monitored.

Years ago, I tried the Tor browser and abandoned it quickly. Too many sites didn’t work, too many services blocked me. I had a “one browser for everything” approach, and Tor couldn’t handle that. What changed wasn’t finding a perfect privacy tool, but changing my mindset. I started using different browsers for different purposes, creating a more fragmented view of my online activity. No single company sees the full picture of who I am.

How Privacy Has Eroded

Every website you visit, every search you make, every product you view contributes to a digital profile that reveals your health, finances, political views, and personal relationships. This data influences what you see online, the prices you’re offered, and can follow you for years.

We’ve been conditioned to accept this as the “cost of free services.” However, free service means only hat we do not pay with money. The real cost is much higher than we realize. Experiencing the difference when browsing through Tor, even for a single session, makes this trade-off clear. You start to notice just how much of your activity is tracked by default.

How Tor Works

I’m not a technical expert on Tor, so feel free to correct me if I get details wrong. As I understand it, Tor routes your internet traffic through three random servers worldwide, encrypting it at each step. This makes it very difficult for anyone—governments, corporations, or hackers—to track your activity or location.

It’s like taking a route through multiple corporations to reach your destination. Each corporation only knows which one you came from and which one you’re going to next, but no single corporation knows your complete journey. You arrive as the same person with the same message – just without anyone being able to trace your full path.

Unlike the big tech companies that profit from tracking you, the Tor Project is a nonprofit organization with no financial incentive to collect your data. When a tool is built by people who believe in privacy rather than people who profit from surveillance, you get very different results. Tor demonstrates that powerful technology can serve people rather than exploit them.

The Convenience Trade-Off

Tor is slower than standard browsers. Pages that load instantly in Chrome might take 10–15 seconds in Tor, and some sites may block you entirely.

However, you don’t need to use Tor for everything. Consider to use Tor when:

• Researching sensitive health or personal topics
• Reading news in politically charged times
• Browsing without leaving a trace
• Accessing information in restrictive environments
• Exercising your right to privacy

You can use regular browsers when:

• Online banking or trading (where reliability matters)
• Shopping online (for persistent login sessions)
• Streaming video (where speed matters most)

Dividing tasks between browsers, as I try to do, allows you to balance convenience and privacy without feeling limited.

The Corporate Pressure

Many websites make Tor deliberately difficult to use, with CAPTCHAs, blocks, or phone verification. This isn’t always about security. It’s often about preserving data collection. Streaming services and social media platforms restrict Tor to maintain their ability to track users and target ads.

Experiencing these restrictions firsthand makes it obvious how valuable our privacy data has become in today’s digital economy and how corporations crave them.

Why Your Use Matters

Every person using Tor strengthens the network and normalizes its legitimacy. More users make it harder for governments to ban Tor and for companies to block it without experiencing a financial impact. Using Tor occasionally helps protect journalists, activists, and people in restrictive environments, as well as your own digital privacy.

I’ve found that even limited Tor use, just for sensitive searches or news reading, can feel empowering and remind me that browsing doesn’t have to be fully tracked.

Getting Started

Legal Notice: Before downloading Tor, be aware that it is blocked or restricted in several countries including Russia, China, Iran, Belarus, North Korea, and others with internet censorship. If you live in a country with such restrictions, using Tor may carry legal risks, and the official website may be inaccessible, making safe download more difficult. Please check your local laws before proceeding.

This post does not constitute legal advice. Users are responsible for understanding and complying with local laws before downloading or using Tor. At the same time, it is important to recognize that restrictions on privacy tools are not neutral measures. They are instruments of censorship and control, used to limit free expression and suppress individual rights. The right to privacy should not be treated as a crime.

If Tor is legal in your location:

1. Download Tor Browser from the official site: torproject.org
2. Install it like any other browser
3. Start with one activity, such as reading news or research
4. Be patient with slower speeds initially
5. Gradually expand your usage as you grow comfortable

You don’t need to become a privacy expert. You just need to start somewhere.

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t just about Tor. It’s about defending the right to privacy in an increasingly monitored world. Every time you use a privacy tool, you push back against the idea that convenience should outweigh personal rights.

Privacy isn’t about hiding wrongdoing. It is about keeping the freedom to think, learn, and connect without constant oversight. When governments or corporations restrict privacy tools, it isn’t neutral. It narrows the space for dissent. It limits access to information. It undermines autonomy.

That is why even occasional use of Tor matters. For me, it has reshaped how I approach the internet. Instead of leaving behind one unified record of who I am, I rely on separate, private interactions. It’s a small adjustment. Yet it resists the idea that surveillance is inevitable.

A Simple Challenge

Try Tor for just one hour this week. Browse news, research a hobby, or explore a topic of interest. Get used to Tor and notice how different it feels to navigate the internet without being tracked.

Yes, it may be slower. Some sites won’t work. That’s the price of stepping outside a system designed for surveillance. The trade-off, however, is worth it. It offers a glimpse of what the internet could be if privacy were the norm rather than the exception.

The choice between privacy and convenience isn’t absolute, but it is a choice. And right now, more of us need to choose privacy, at least some of the time.