Tor and the City
MSA-Level Correlates of Interest in Anonymous Web Browsing
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12729415 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew M Lindner (0000-0003-4347-8787, Skidmore College, corresponding author), Gina Pryciak (Skidmore College), Jamie Elsner (Skidmore College) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 507-521 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Surveillance & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1477-7487 • E-ISSN: 1477-7487 |
| Publisher | Surveillance Studies Network (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.24908/ss.v18i4.13235 |
| OpenAlex | W3107070972 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 16 |
In the twenty-first century, Americans have put more of their lives online while the US government has expanded its mass surveillance apparatus. Interest in anonymity-granting technologies like The Onion Router (Tor) has grown substantially as citizens seek to protect their privacy. However, this same technology can be used to engage in illegal activity on the dark web. This study examines how interest in the dark web, public attention to the 2013 Snowden revelations, and metro-area political ideology are associated with public interest in Tor. We link data from multiple sources including Google Trends, the American Community Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study for the forty-nine largest US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) from 2006–2015 (n=490). Broadly, we find that metro areas with liberal citizen ideology and greater interest in the dark web were more likely to search for Tor. When controlling for the level of interest in the dark web, the Snowden revelations of 2013 had no significant impact on interest in Tor. These findings suggest that the lure of the dark web and left-leaning ideological contexts offer stronger explanations for interest in anonymity-granting technology than the public attention brought to mass surveillance by the Snowden revelations
Anonymity · Deep Web · Geography · Government (linguistics · Ideology · Internet privacy · Metropolitan area · Political science · Politics · Public interest · Public opinion · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
The Internet and the Rise of the New Network Cities, 1969–1999
The cost of racial animus on a black candidate
Before and After Snowden
Racialization as a Way of Seeing
The Snowden Stakes
Surveillance Hegemony
Tor, what is it good for? Political repression and the use of online anonymity-granting technologies
Power/freedom on the dark web
Digital development in rural areas
A Tack in the Shoe
Taking Time Seriously
The Economic Geography of the Internet's Infrastructure
Using Internet Search Data to Produce State-level Measures
After Snowden
Suburbanization and segregation in the United States
| Citations per year | 0.25 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |