Person X started to use Tor to browse the internet, and was able to securely access banned websites once again. Then one day a friend told here about the Tor network, and snuck her a USB stick containing a copy of the Tor browser. Snooping on Person X’s browsing destinations also alerted the government to the existence of several new activist servers that it hadn’t previously known about. They noticed that many of these IP addresses belonged to servers known to be hosting seditious material, and began blocking her access to them. However, they could still read her IP packet headers, and see the IP addresses of the servers that she was accessing. Of course, the government and secret police were still monitoring Person X’s network, but thanks to HTTPS they could no longer read the contents of any of her messages.

When she was released she joined a new activist group, and she started making sure to only communicate with her new comrades over encrypted HTTPS.

However, she did learn a lot about encryption and HTTPS. Person X did not learn much about the dangers of freedom while she was in jail. Once the government had seen enough, they arrested Person X and threw her in jail for reeducation. The government used her passwords to impersonate her online, and were able to destroy the activist cell that she was a part of. The government was monitoring her network traffic, and was able to record the websites that she visited, the passwords that she used, and the messages that she sent. The first time that Person X used the internet to communicate with her fellow activists, she did so using unencrypted HTTP. Person X is not her real name, but that’s OK because she’s not a real person either. However, the government controls her country’s only Internet Service Provider, and it uses this power to run a very effective online censorship and spying program. She uses the internet to communicate with other activists and human rights watchdogs. Person X is a pro-democracy activist who lives in an anti-democratic country. The internet is a dangerous place for Person X.

Tor bridge relay setup