'New York Times' Tests Tor Publishing, Provides Anonymized Access To Sensitive Users


The New York Times this morning announced it will experiment with an alternative method of digital publishing that will give users otherwise blocked from accessing its conventional nytimes.com web pages access via a Tor Onion Service.

“Some readers choose to use Tor to access our journalism because they’re technically blocked from accessing our website; or because they worry about local network monitoring; or because they care about online privacy; or simply because that is the method that they prefer,” Runa Sandvik, director of information security, explains in a post on the paper’s “Times Open” blog.

Because the Onion Service utilizes a “hard-to-block VPN-like” method via the Tor Network, she says the Onion Service could prove to be a good workaround for users accessing the site from unsavory locations or with other concerns about being associated with the paper’s content.

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VPNs are virtual private networks that enable users to access content and send or receive data across the Web on an anonymized basis.

The address for the Onion Service is:

https://www.nytimes3xbfgragh.onion/

Accessing content through the Tor network requires special browser software, which can be downloaded here.

“Such tools assure our readers that our website can be reached without monitors or blocks. They provide additional guarantees that readers are connected securely to our website,” Sandvik explains.

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