Tor in ordinary life - and 5G --- Bennette, check out the discussion thread initiated by Alan above in the box on Tor; we suggest that Tor is not more widely used because it is somewhat slower, not so easy to use for just anyone, and not much needed for most people (where VPN will do) - though perceptions about Tor mater as well probably. Add your thoughts here or above.

Vladimir, as for 5G: it will certainly speed up our interactions. But, the Tor nodes are on personal devices around the world, which might be connected through the mobile connectivity (4G, 5G, etc), but could easily be on a fibre-to-the-home already (yet faster), or on a slow community wifi or ADSL (which is very slow).

So it really depends what connection node users have; as the time goes, and the global connectivity improves, we can guess Tor capacities could get bigger. But this doesn't necessarily mean it will become more usable: services we use are also more and more demanding (higher video quality, real-time interaction and gaming, virtual reality..) - so it is cat-and-mouse chaise. Also, the more people that use Tor, the greater the stress (and 'demand' might not be followed by the 'supply' of node capacities...

I guess Tor won't become a mainstream anyhow; but it is certainly a very useful tool for everyone for particular sensitive (private) browsing or research. But other technological alternatives (also mentioned in the text) may emerge.

Yet I tend to agree with Alan: there are many simpler ways to protect ones privacy (and security), like passwords, and people are not implementing them. Tor is far from the sight for many. We have to improve awareness of the masses in general.

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu