Tor Named One of the Year's Best Products

Iorek writes "PC World lauds Tor, an anonymous Internet communication system, as better than its paid competitors, and one of the best 100 products of 2005. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is supporting Tor development, has a press release as well."

Comments

Publicity a good thing or not?

[Critical_]

I have been a Tor users for a very long time and, to a certain extent, the fact that it is not very well publicized has kept the system relatively free of the possibilty abuse. When I say possibility of abuse, I am talking about the media saying that Tor is a way to do anonymous torrents of copyrighted material, transferring child porn, etc. As Tor becomes more publicized, will I have to deal with articles from self-proclaimed experts accusing Tor of being a vehicle for such activity? Will I then see some politician try to pass legislation against anonymizer type software? Maybe I'm being alarmist, but these days anything is possible.

Re:Hmm

[kingofalaska]

Scroll down, read the articles about the so-called "Patriot Act", or censorship, or...

There are many reasons. Yes, it can be abused, just as a stick or a rock can be abused.

KOA

Giant Missile Defense Radar Sails

Re:Hmm

[stevey]

I don't get why so many people put letters in envelopes, what have they got to hide?

Why not write on the back of postcards so everybody can make sure they're not hiding illegal words..

It's a slippery slope. Encryption is useful.

Re:Hmm

[Dr Damage I]

The fact that one does not wish the state or ones ISP to know ones secrets does not imply that those secrets are illicit in nature. A person could be transmitting commercially sensitive material which if released could be used by ones competitors, or one could simply be averse to having people know that one uses ordinary, legal porn.

It's a simple fact that People like privacy and place a non zero value on it. The phrase "what are you trying to hide" is the last refuge of the voyeur.

Re:Hmm

[Motherfucking Shit]

The thing I don't get with Tor is why someone would need that much encryption, unless they were transferring something illegal like copyrighted material.

In some places, discussing things like "democracy" and "freedom" is illegal. In some places, it's verboten for women to bare their necks or ankles (much less anything else) in public. In some places, it's illegal to read books that involve sexual behavior, or criticize the government, or any number of other things.

Are you still convinced that a network of potential "illegal" uses is such a bad thing?

Re:How about...

[caluml]

Slashdot either eliminate "Anonymous Coward" posting

No - it should leave the ability to post anonymously, but only if you are logged in to an actual account.