United for Internet Freedom: The Tor Project Joins Forces with Tails

This week, the community dedicated to citizens' privacy has received huge news: The Tor Project will merge with Tails, joining forces to combat surveillance and censorship.

According to the official announcement on the Tor Project's blog, the Tor Project, a global non-profit organization developing tools for online privacy and anonymity, and Tails, a portable operating system that uses Tor to protect users from digital surveillance, have recently joined forces and merged their operations. Incorporating Tails into the Tor Project's structure will allow for easier collaboration, enhanced sustainability, reduced overhead, and the expansion of training and outreach programs to counter a broader range of digital threats. In short, the merger will strengthen both organizations' ability to protect people worldwide from surveillance and censorship.

Pooling Resources to Better Serve the Global Community

Tor and Tails aim to address the threats posed by global mass surveillance and censorship to a free Internet, providing essential tools to help people worldwide stay safe online. By joining forces, these two privacy advocates will pool their resources to focus on what matters most: ensuring that activists, journalists, other high-risk users, and the general public can access and use the best global digital security tools available.

At the end of 2023, Tails proposed the idea of merging operations with the Tor Project. Tails had grown beyond its existing structure. Instead of expanding Tails' operational capabilities on its own, which would place more strain on Tails' employees, merging with the Tor Project offered a win-win solution, given the Tor Project's larger and more mature operational framework. Through the merger, the Tails team can now concentrate on their core task of maintaining and improving Tails OS, exploring more complementary use cases, while benefiting from the larger organizational structure of the Tor Project.

This solution is a natural result of the history of collaboration and solidarity between the Tor Project and Tails. Fifteen years ago, the first version of Tails was announced on the Tor mailing list, and since 2015, developers from both Tor and Tails have maintained close cooperation, with Tails recently becoming a secondary funder to Tor. For Tails, if they were to engage with a larger organization for a potential merger, it was clear that the Tor Project was the ideal partner.

Intrigeri, the head of the Tails OS team within the Tor Project, remarked: "After 15 years of running as an independent project, it's been a Herculean effort for the Tails team, but the reasons might not be what you'd expect. The hardest part wasn't the technical side but dealing with key tasks like fundraising, finances, and human resources. After trying to manage these tasks in different ways, I'm really relieved that Tails is now managed by the Tor Project. In a way, it feels like coming home."

The Tor Project Welcomes New Users and Partners to Join the Tor Community

Whether users seek access to an open network or are facing surveillance, both Tor and Tails offer complementary protections. The Tor Browser can anonymize online browsing activities, while Tails can protect the entire operating system—from file operations to browsing sessions. For journalists working in authoritarian regions or covering sensitive topics, Tor and Tails are often used in tandem to safeguard their communications and sources. Post-merger, they will be better equipped to address these overlapping threat models and provide comprehensive solutions for those needing network and system-level security in high-risk environments.

The collaboration also opens up broader training and outreach opportunities. So far, Tor's educational efforts have mainly focused on its browser. By integrating Tails into these initiatives, a wider range of privacy needs and security scenarios can be addressed. Additionally, this merger will increase Tails' visibility. Many users familiar with Tor might not know about Tails OS. By bringing Tails into the Tor Project, this powerful tool can be introduced to more individuals and groups needing to stay anonymous in adverse conditions.

"Joining forces with Tor means we finally have the capability to reach more people who need Tails. We've known for a long time that we needed to expand our reach, but we didn't have the resources to do it," said intrigeri.

Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director of the Tor Project, said, "By integrating these two organizations, we not only make the work easier for the teams but also ensure the sustainability and advancement of these crucial tools. Through collaboration, we can collaborate more quickly and efficiently, integrating new features from one tool to another faster. This partnership strengthens our mission and enhances our ability to counter evolving threats."

The Tor Project concluded by expressing that user support will greatly benefit from this merger, and they hope people will consider donating to the Tor Project. If donors wish to allocate their contributions specifically to Tails activities, they can continue to donate through Tails' donation page until further notice. For more information on how the Tor Project will integrate its donation infrastructure and how the funds will be used, one can refer to the updated FAQ on donations by the Tor Project.