In the wake of NSA agent Edward Snowden's revelations that government project PRISM allows the government to tap phone calls, email, and web browsing of any citizen without a warrant, private internet customers are increasingly turning to Tor, an anonymity network that allows people to securely browse without fear of being hacked.
The number of Tor users has more than doubled this month, from approximately 500,000 when the month began to over 1,200,000 now. The Tor model works by "onion-routing", which - PC World explains - allows you to surf the web anonymously by encrypting your Internet connection requests and bouncing them between numerous "relay nodes" before finally sending them on to the final destination."
Or, as Tor's website puts it: "The idea is similar to using a twisty, hard-to-follow route in order to throw off somebody who is tailing you-and then periodically erasing your footprints."
Tor was originally developed by the U.S. Navy, and is regularly used by activists, journalists, and others looking to conceal their identity. Now, ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends of NSA employees may want to start using it as well.
According to a Wall Street Journal story from earlier in the week, NSA Chief Compliance Officer John DeLong estimates that NSA employees have used the PRISM network to spy on love interests a handful of times in the last decade. In the spy agency, they refer to that particular nefarious activity as LOVEINT.
Several theories about the expanded popularity of Tor go beyond PRISM, though all relate to sovereign states showing an increased disregard for privacy rights of their citizens. On August 8th, Lavabit and Silent Circle's Silent Mail - two secure mail servers - shut their doors rather than allow access to the U.S. Government. On August 1st, a Russian anti-piracy law akin to the U.S.'s SOPA/PIPA bill went into affect, similarly incentivizing the anonymous browser, reports the Washington Post.