Why governments fund TOR?

[Jim]

arshad wrote:
> hi all,
> forgive me for my ignorance.
> may i know why governmetns fund TOR. i read 49% funds coming from
> government. TOR is usually considered for passing government restriction
> by journalists and activists. so why should governments fund this?

I can't speak for all governments but it might be relevant to point out
 that onion routing started (as I understand it -- anybody, feel free to
correct) as a project of the U.S. Navy and was used by the various
branches of the U.S armed forces to use the Internet anonymously.
Trouble was, that although their targets could not tell *exactly* who
was visiting their website, they could tell it was U.S. military.  So,
as I understand it, they released the technology so they could hide
among the civilians.

Even within a particular govt you can have conflicting goals.  Part may
wish to prevent its citizens from being anonymous while another part may
find it useful to use civilians for cover.

Just my speculation ...

Jim
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