Highlights:

  • The Tails Project creates Tails, a version of Linux with an emphasis on privacy. It is based on the widely used Debian operating system distribution rather than the Linux kernel itself.
  • The organizations claimed that the change will present chances to grow the user outreach and training initiatives they provide.

The Tails Project and Tor Project announced merging to propagate their product development efforts. The collaboration between these renowned privacy technologies followed a year-long tie-up.

The nonprofit Tor Project, situated in Massachusetts, creates the network privacy tool known as Tor. Users can prevent attempts to spy on their internet traffic by using the program. By doing this, Tor also increases the difficulty with which hackers may locate the user’s device.

The Onion Router, as the technology is fully named, encrypts every web request using three different layers. Subsequently, Tor directs the request via three distinct servers, all of which eliminate one encryption layer. After leaving the third server in decrypted form, the request travels back to its starting point.

In addition to thwarting attempts to listen in on online data, Tor’s encryption technique makes it more challenging to track down the traffic. There is no way for the servers responsible for decrypting a web request that uses Tor to know if it originated from the user’s device or from another intermediate server. Hackers thus have a harder time pinpointing the precise source of the online traffic.

The Tails Project creates Tails, a version of Linux with an emphasis on privacy. It is based on the widely used Debian operating system distribution rather than the Linux kernel itself. The latter program adds several new capabilities to the kernel, chief among them being tools to facilitate the installation and uninstallation of programs.

Tails adds a number of features to Debian that are intended to safeguard users’ privacy. The operating system does not keep any data on the hard drive of the machine to which the USB stick is connected; instead, it can be booted from the stick. Tails uses Tor by default to power its network connections.

Discussions for a merger between the Tor Project and the Tails Project began last year. The creators of Tails decided to make the change because they were finding it difficult to handle the administrative responsibilities associated with maintaining an open-source project.

The project maintainers jointly stated, “Rather than expanding Tails’s operational capacity on their own and putting more stress on Tails workers, merging with the Tor Project, with its larger and established operational framework, offered a solution. By joining forces, the Tails team can now focus on their core mission of maintaining and improving Tails OS, exploring more and complementary use cases while benefiting from the larger organizational structure of the Tor Project.”

The organizations claimed that the change will present chances to grow the user outreach and training initiatives they provide. Post merger, the progress roadmaps for the Tails Project and Tor Project anticipate being more closely aligned. That might improve the ways in which their different technologies are integrated.