What is the purpose of Onion Router (Tor)?

The primary purpose of the Onion Router (Tor) is to “conceal location.” Tor is designed to anonymize internet activity, helping users protect their privacy and defend against network surveillance and traffic analysis. It does this by directing internet traffic through a worldwide, volunteer overlay network consisting of more than seven thousand relays. This process encrypts the data multiple times and routes it through multiple servers (or nodes) to conceal the user’s location and usage from anyone conducting network surveillance or traffic analysis.

The other options provided do not accurately describe the purpose of Tor:

• Decrypt the originating traffic and IP address: Tor encrypts traffic to preserve anonymity but does not specifically decrypt traffic; rather, it aims to prevent the traffic from being decrypted easily by third parties.
• Map exit IP address to a physical location: Tor actually makes this mapping difficult. The use of a distributed network of relays is intended to obfuscate the user’s physical location and IP address.
• Block unauthorized access: While Tor provides anonymity, it is not primarily a tool for blocking access; its main function is to anonymize web browsing and communications.