What Year Was the Tor Project Founded?

This article provides an overview of the founding of the Tor Project, detailing the specific year it was officially established as a non-profit organization. It covers the project’s historical transition from early onion routing research sponsored by the U.S. government to an independent, globally recognized entity dedicated to online privacy and digital freedom.

The Official Founding Year

The Tor Project was officially established in December 2006 as a 501(c)(3) research-education non-profit organization based in the United States. Computer scientists Roger Dingledine, Nick Mathewson, and five others founded the organization to maintain, develop, and support the Tor network and its related privacy software.

Origins and Development

While the organization itself was created in 2006, the underlying technology predates the official entity:

• Mid-1990s: Onion routing was originally conceived and developed by mathematician Paul Syverson and computer scientists Michael G. Reed and David Goldschlag at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to protect U.S. intelligence communications online.
• 2002: The alpha version of the modern Tor network—short for “The Onion Routing”—was launched by Roger Dingledine and Nick Mathewson.
• 2004: The code was released under a free and open-source license, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provided funding to support continued development.

The Transition to an Independent Non-Profit

By late 2006, the scale of the software and the growing global user base required dedicated, independent governance. The formation of The Tor Project, Inc. in 2006 allowed the developers to secure diverse funding, expand the developer community, and focus entirely on creating free, open-source privacy tools for the general public, journalists, activists, and organizations worldwide.