How Do Tor Users Interact with Onion Services?
How Do Tor Users Interact With Onion Services? Philipp Winter Anne Edmundson Laura M. Roberts Princeton University Princeton University Princeton University Agnieszka Dutkowska-Zuk˙ Marshini Chetty Nick Feamster Independent Princeton University Princeton University Abstract messaging [4] and file sharing [15]. The Tor Project currently does not have data on the number of onion Onion services are anonymous network services that are service users, but Facebook reported in 2016 that more exposed over the Tor network. In contrast to conventional than one million users logged into its onion service in one Internet services, onion services are private, generally not month [20]. indexed by search engines, and use self-certifying domain Onion services differ from conventional web services names that are long and difficult for humans to read. In in four ways; First, they can only be accessed over the Tor this paper, we study how people perceive, understand, and network. Second, onion domains are hashes over their use onion services based on data from 17 semi-structured public key, which make them difficult to remember. Third, interviews and an online survey of 517 users. We find that the network path between client and the onion service is users have an incomplete mental model of onion services, typically longer, increasing latency and thus reducing the use these services for anonymity and have varying trust in performance of the service. Finally, onion services are onion services in general. Users also have difficulty dis- private by default, meaning that users must discover these covering and tracking onion sites and authenticating them. sites organically, rather than with a search engine.
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