Today we start to provide vutuv through a secure Tor service at http://vutuvh2rmz3ynydm.onion in addition to our normal HTTPS service https://www.vutuv.de
We always aim at speed and security. So naturally we had an open ear when people asked for an .onion address to use vutuv. No, that is not true. In the beginning we didn’t see the need for Tor but after vutuv users told Stefan Wintermeyer about their cases we understood why it is important. I’d like to use this post to share some light onto this so that other business networking and career sides will follow our lead.
From day 1 on we only supported HTTPS and not the unencrypted HTTPS. We did this because of security concerns and because we deliver our content via the HTTP/2 protocol which is super fast (it requires https to work). Of course we were aware of the Tor network but we didn’t think that it would be a big deal for our users. But we were wrong.
Why vutuv user sometimes need Tor?
There are two typical use cases for the use of the Tor Browser to work with vutuv:
- Users who live in countries where they fear acts of reprisal for contacting foreign publishers. Those users search mainly for journalists, bloggers and publishers in vutuv.
- Job seekers who work in companies which log the use of their HTTPS-Proxies. Thoses users can not use vutuv to search for a new job or to contact a head hunter from their work environment because it would show up in the log files. But nobody wants his employer to see that he/she is searching for a new job.
It’s obvious that these user groups are totally different. But they both appreciate a secure connection. https connections are sometimes intercepted by man-in-the-middle proxies. And that is not just the case in some foreign countries with evil regimes but also in many companies which peek into the HTTPS connections.
Isn’t the use of a business network and the need for security a contradiction?
Traditional business networking sites (e.g. https://www.linkedin.com and https://www.xing.com) require users to login to use them. That comes along with setting cookies and quite a deal of user tracking. We don’t do that at https://www.vutuv.de. Anybody can use the page without having to login. Therefor you can benefit from using vutuv even without logging in to it.
And with the use of Tor you can even create an account and still be secure from watching eyes.
How to use the Tor Browser?
Download the Tor Browser at https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en and install it. Than you can use it to browse to http://vutuvh2rmz3ynydm.onion or of course to https://www.vutuv.de
Using the onion network is of course slower than the traditional internet connection. But because vutuv has a very good WebPerformance it is less painful than with other pages.
Is vutuv still growing?
Yes, we are! 7 digits! More to come.
