[1] A student of mathematics, computer science, and electrical engineering,[2] Dingledine is also known by the pseudonym arma.

[5] Tor was developed by Dingledine[6]—with Nick Mathewson and Paul Syverson[4]—under a contract from the United States Naval Research Laboratory.

[1] As of 2006, the software they developed was being distributed using proceeds from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, by the Tor Project.

[1] The Review described the importance of the work in this way: A dissident in China uses Web-based e-mail to contact a journalist in Canada.

[24] Dingledine has drawn attention after the leak of NSA documents by Edward Snowden, and public disclosure of the rules guiding the operation of XKeyscore, the NSA's collection system, given XKeyscore's targeting of Tor Project onion servers, including the one Dingledine runs at MIT, which serves a directory authority for the system, as well as being the base of operation of the Mixminion mail service, and host to various gaming and other websites (from which the NSA might be collecting IP addresses).