On September 26, 2024, The Tor Project and Tails merged their operations, believing that integrating Tails into the Tor Project’s structure would facilitate better collaboration, improved sustainability, reduced overhead, and expanded training and outreach programs to address a wider range of digital threats.
In late 2023, Tails approached the Tor Project with the idea of merging operations. Tails had outgrown its existing structure. Rather than expanding Tails’s operational capacity on their own and putting more stress on Tails workers, merging with the Tor Project, with its larger and established operational framework, offered a solution. By joining forces, the Tails team can now focus on their core mission of maintaining and improving Tails OS, exploring more and complementary use cases while benefiting from the larger organizational structure of The Tor Project.
Both parties agree that the collaboration between the Tor Project and Tails is a natural outcome of their shared history. Tails’ first release was announced on a Tor mailing list 15 years ago, and the developers of Tor and Tails have been working closely together since 2015. More recently, Tails has been a sub-grantee of Tor. Tails felt that it was obvious that if they were to consider merging with a larger organization, it would be the Tor Project.
Frank, a custom Tails “Persona”, posted on Dread
intrigeri, Team Lead Tails OS:
Running Tails as an independent project for 15 years has been a huge effort, but not for the reasons you might expect. The toughest part wasn’t the tech–it was handling critical tasks like fundraising, finances, and HR. After trying to manage those in different ways, I’m really relieved that Tails is now under the Tor Project’s wing. In a way, it feels like coming home
Isabela Fernandes, Executive Director, The Tor Project:
By bringing these two organizations together, we’re not just making things easier for our teams, but ensuring the sustainable development and advancement of these vital tools. Working together allows for faster, more efficient collaboration, enabling the quick integration of new features from one tool to the other. This collaboration strengthens our mission and accelerates our ability to respond to evolving threats
