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I have added a Snowflake extension to my browser, along with about 85,000 other people. It costs nothing and may save a life. In the last 24 hours, I've helped 6 people in authoritarian countries access the internet and bypass surveillance. I did nothing except add a safe extension to my browser. First, you should understand the TOR project.

The TOR Project

The TOR project is a Nonprofit organization located in America. About 80% of its $2 million annual budget comes from the United States Government, including the State Department and the National Science Foundation. The Swedish government is also a major contributor, as are thousands of individual donors. Its objective is to:

They have several projects to achieve this objective, but the mainstay project is the TOR network. TOR stands for The Onion Router. Like an onion, TOR has layers within layers. Here's an image from Wikipedia showing how TOR works.

The TOR browser (client above), encrypts a message or just a destination three times, making three layers. Then it is sent out to the TOR network with the first key. The first node in the network strips off the outside layer, sends it off to a middle node. The TOR network has about 2,000 entry nodes and 3,000-4,000 middle nodes. The middle node then strips the second layer and sends the final wrapper to one of about 1,000 exit nodes, which removes the final wrapper and sends the message on to its destination. All these nodes are volunteer computers.

A repressive regime would not be able to read that message. These might be a journalist's article about what is happening on the ground during an uprising. It could simply be people trying to learn what is happening in the rest of the world, by reading an American newspaper or watching a YouTube video.

However, since there are only about 2,000 entry nodes, they can be blocked by a repressive government, even if it can't extract the message sent, visiting those nodes could also get you arrested. This is the reason the TOR project is working to protect journalists and others with other safety procedures. Project Snowflake is one of them.

Project Snowflake disguises the entry node. It allows anyone living under repressive governments to enter the TOR network while appearing to be making a simple Internet phone call, or visiting a normal website. This stops that government from being able to block the traffic or know it will go to the TOR network. This is accomplished when volunteers living under non-repressive governments add the TOR Snowflake project extension to their browser, as I did. It is very lightweight. The messages don't download or use your computer except to bounce the message on. I experience NO extra traffic, but seem to help a few people a day get to where they want on the Internet.

Here's what it looks like for me.

I let it run even when the browser is closed. When it is blue, it is not being used. It turns green when being used. I could disable it if I wanted to. Mostly, I forget it is there. Occasionally, I check it to see if anyone used it.

Date: February 2025