CIPT (Certified Information Privacy Technologist) Practice

How do tools like Tor provide browsing anonymity to users?

1. By encrypting browsing history data

2. By blocking access to certain websites

3. By redirecting web traffic through multiple intermediary nodes

4. By displaying fake IP addresses to websites

The correct answer is: By redirecting web traffic through multiple intermediary nodes

Tor provides browsing anonymity to users by redirecting their web traffic through multiple intermediary nodes. This means that when a user accesses a website, their request is first sent to a random node in the Tor network, which then routes the request to another random node, and so on until it reaches its destination. This process of relaying through multiple nodes makes it difficult for anyone to trace the user's request back to their original IP address. Options A, B, and D are incorrect because they do not involve redirecting web traffic through intermediary nodes and thus do not provide the same level of anonymity that Tor does. Option A only encrypts data, which may protect it from being intercepted, but does not hide the user's IP address. Option B, blocking access to certain websites, has no impact on anonymity. Option D, displaying fake IP addresses, may fool some websites, but can be easily detected and does not prevent someone from tracking a user's original IP address. Therefore, option C, redirecting web traffic through multiple intermediary nodes, is the best way for tools like Tor to provide browsing anonymity to users.