The Tor Project will integrate its work with Tails, a portable Linux-based operating system focused on protecting user privacy and anonymity.
The merger comes amid an ongoing digital surveillance and regulatory campaign to break end-to-end encryption, with censorship of online services remaining a global challenge.
According to a blog post published today by Pavel Zhonev, Tor Project director of public affairs and communications, Tails will be incorporated “into the fabric of the Tor Project,” which will allow for “easier collaboration, greater sustainability, reduced expenses, and expanded training and outreach programs to combat more digital threats.”
Two become one
Founded in 2006, the Tor Project is a non-profit organization best known for its work on Tor (“The Onion Router”), a privacy-focused network that anonymizes your Internet traffic by routing it through several different servers and encrypting the data along the way. The Tor Project develops browsers for every major operating system, and some of the world's largest technology companies have adopted Tor to support a variety of privacy-focused initiatives.
Tails, on the other hand, comes with a pre-installed desktop environment and is built on a Debian-based Linux distribution. It's lightweight and can boot from portable storage devices like USB drives, leaving little to no digital footprint.
The Tor and Tails open source projects are no strangers to one another. Tails (aka the “Amnesic Incognito Live System”), first released in 2009, connects to the internet through Tor by default. Additionally, Tails has received support from a number of third-party organizations and foundations over the years, including the Tor Project itself, which has funded the project's development resources.
The merger between the Tor Project and Tails makes a lot of sense given their respective focuses on online privacy and anonymity and their shared history, and could be a boon to those most at risk in a world of 24/7 digital surveillance, potentially benefiting activists, journalists, and anyone at risk of online tracking.
In fact, none other than Edward Snowden has praised both platforms, previously saying that he used Tails as part of his whistleblowing efforts against the US National Security Agency (NSA) over a decade ago.
According to a blog post, the merger came about after Tails approached the Tor Project in late 2023, noting that Tails had “outgrown its existing structure.”
“Running Tails as an independent project for 15 years was a tough endeavor, but not for the reasons you might imagine,” Tails OS team lead Intrigieri said in a statement. “The hardest part wasn't the technical parts, but handling important tasks like fundraising, finances, and HR. After trying to manage those in various ways, I'm really relieved that Tails is now under the umbrella of the Tor Project.”
The Tor Project says that by combining their respective resources, including technology and talent, they will be better equipped to address “global mass surveillance and censorship threats to a free Internet. This will include expanding the Tor Project's reach to “address a broader range of privacy needs and security scenarios,” including closer technical collaboration, in addition to strengthening education, training and outreach programs.
“Bringing these two organizations together will not only make our teams' work easier, but it will ensure the sustainable development and advancement of these important tools,” Tor Project Executive Director Isabella Fernandez said in a statement. “Working together will allow for faster and more efficient collaboration and the rapid integration of new features from one tool into the other.”