Tor Project: Anonymity ain’t free, folks. Pony up
The Tor project is asking its supporters to donate money to help the nonprofit continue to operate.
The project has kicked off a fundraising effort to further expand its online anonymity network and further back educational projects.
Users can donate one-time cash sums or set up a monthly recurring donation. In addition to Paypal-based online donations, the Tor Project said it will accept money via Dwolla, Bitcoin, and old-fashioned check, cash, money order, and bank transfer.
The campaign is part of an effort by Tor to expand its cashflow beyond the university grants and government handouts it had previously relied on. As a nonprofit, Tor opens its year-by-year financial records to the public.
To help further the campaign, Tor enlisted the help of Citizen Four director Laura Poitras, who credited Tor with helping her stay in contact with NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“There are so many reasons … that we want to protect our privacy and not broadcast every move we make online,” Poitras said in her endorsement. “Tor is an essential tool that is needed by people to do what they do.”
According to Tor, its major backers in this year alone have included the US Department of State, Reddit, the National Science Foundation (via four separate US university donations), Radio Free Asia, and what the group only calls “an anonymous North American ISP.”
Tor also said that it has received some 4,300 individual donations this year as well.
Though the Tor Project has found itself at odds with the US government for criminal activity taking place on the network, Tor has its roots in the US Department of Defense, and DARPA was listed among its top donors from 2001 to 2006. ®
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Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/25/tor_project_donations/