Tor and the City: MSA-level Correlates of Interest in Anonymous Web Browsing

• In Event: 3163 - Digital and Social Media: Perceptions, Uses and Impact

Abstract

In the 21st century, Americans have put more of their lives online, while the U.S. government has expanded its mass surveillance apparatus. Interest in anonymity-granting technologies like the Tor browser have grown substantially as citizen 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 public interest in the Dark Web as well as the 2013 Snowden revelations, and metro area political ideology affect 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 49 largest U.S. 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 tend to suggest that the lure of the Dark Web and left-leaning ideology offer stronger explanations for interest in anonymity-granting technology than the public attention brought to mass surveillance by the Snowden revelations.

Authors

• Andrew M. Lindner, Skidmore College

• Gina Pryciak, Skidmore College

• Jamie Elsner, Skidmore College