Tor has been a subject or debate ever since the project has been started. This page does not aim to convince you to use Tor or not to use it, but we feel that it is required to clear up some common misconceptions about Tor and maybe you see it in a different light after you read this article.
Feel free to add more points that you think that need to be clarified before somebody starts to run Tor.
#1 - Tor does not encrypt your content
One of the biggest misconceptions is that people think that Tor protects their data so that nobody else can read it. This is wrong!
Tor does encrypt the data while it is transferred within the Tor network. This is to protect it from being captured and analyzed by attacks that take part in the Tor network, but your data will be decrypted when it leaves the exit-node. Therefore it is still possible to do the surveillance stuff at that point.
What is the Tor network for then, if it cannot protect the data? Tor is for anonymity. The benefit is that an attacker might get the data, but he wouldn't know where it is from. In order to protect the content, you will need to use mechanisms like PGP that do end-to-end encryption. Tor does not do that for you!
#2 - Using Tor is easy
No it is not! For full privacy, it is not sufficient to install Tor and start using it. Operating Systems are full of backdoors and other software can be hijacked, so that it will reveal your actual IP address and therefore the location where you currently are.
If you need tools like a browser and you need to make a hundred percent sure that your privacy is protected, don't use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Use the Tor Browser Bundle instead.
It's a lot more to it that just installing Tor on your system. More information about this can be found over here: