Tor, one of the most important and misunderstood technologies of the digital age, is best known as the infrastructure underpinning the so-called Dark Web. But Tor’s history—where this complex and contested infrastructure came from, why it exists, and how it connects with global power in intricate and intimate ways—goes far beyond its use for crime. Drawing on in-depth interviews with designers, developers, activists, and users, along with twenty years of mailing lists, design documents, reporting, and legal papers, Ben will trace Tor’s evolution from those early days to its current place on the frontlines of global digital power. The talk will explore how ethnographic research poised between STS and critical criminology can explore complex infrastructures with deep ties both to the state and to resistance.

Ben Collier is a Lecturer in Digital Methods at the University of Edinburgh, in the department of Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies. Ben’s research draws on criminology and STS perspectives to study digital infrastructures as sites of harm and power. Ben is the author of a recent book with MIT Press titled Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy, and is currently working on a project studying MI5 and GCHQ’s shaping of public security in the UK. [more]

Supported by the Department of Science & Technology Studies and the Digital Due Process Clinic with support from a National Science Foundation award (#1848286).