Encryption
Encoding data so only intended recipients can read it. Tor encrypts traffic between relays; HTTPS encrypts to websites; PGP encrypts message content.
Encryption transforms data so that only holders of the right key can read it. In the Tor context several layers stack on top of each other, and confusing them is the most common beginner error.
The layers in one connection
Tor wraps traffic in multiple encryption layers, one removed by each relay along a circuit — the “onion” in onion routing. For clearnet destinations, HTTPS then protects content between the exit node and the website. For messages whose content must stay secret even from the service carrying them, end-to-end encryption such as PGP operates above all of that.
What encryption does not do
Encryption protects content, not existence or shape. Who talked to whom, when, and how much — the metadata — can remain visible to network observers even when every byte is encrypted. It also says nothing about the honesty of the other endpoint: an encrypted channel to a scammer is still a channel to a scammer.
Category: Cryptography