**Tails protects thousands of people everyday to be safe online and we give out Tails for free because we believe that nobody should have to pay to be protected from surveillance and censorship.**
We've all become used to get content and tools on the Internet without paying for them. But you know that this is the result of users having become the new product. While sharing images and messages online, users generate page and advertisement views — which in turn generate income, reaching up to several billions of dollars for some companies.
Being free software is a necessary requirement for our tools to be safe and to protect you as intended. If our source code was closed, there would be no way of actually verifying that our software is trustworthy.
Last year we've made it clear [[how much of our overall budget came from government grants|news/why_we_need_donations]] and that, in order to remain independent and to use our money in the best interest of our users, we needed to be able to rely on donations. Our first donation campaign was a big success in that regard: your donations covered nearly one third of our budget of 2017.
**But many of our users could actually get in trouble** if they donated to an anti-surveillance tool like Tails. So when donating to Tails you are also [[giving a hand to these people|news/who_are_you_helping]] by keeping Tails alive. Please consider setting up a yearly or monthly donation.