Slashdot Mirror
The Drawbacks of Anonymous Surfing
BlueCup writes to tell us that one reporter decided to give anonymous web surfing a shot, and found it to be much more trouble than it was worth. Many users take advantage of Tor and other anonymous web browsing tools, but is the amount of hassle worth the effort it takes to remain anonymous?
"expects to go into politics"
or is already in politics for that matter.
The value of annonymous surfing to be worth overcoming hasstles is directly proportional to the damage you habits would cause should they get out.
Lost job? -> possibly
Divorce? -> maybe
Prison time? -> likely
loss of big money? -> yes
execution? -> Certainly.
-nB
That's about as I rank it.
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
I've been using FoxyProxy/Privoxy/Tor for a few months now. It wasn't nearly as difficult to set up as I'd imagined (I'm running Ubuntu), and it didn't degrade or slow down my web experience as much as I feared, either. It caused me an unexpected problem last week, though. I ordered some hardware from NewEgg. The process went exactly as usual and I got the confirmation e-mails as usual. The next day, however, I got another form e-mail that said my order had been cancelled because my bank was outside the United States. WTF, I thought - this is clearly not the case. I called NewEgg's support line and was told that it was actually *my* IP that appeared to be outside the US. I explained that I was using anonymizing software to protect my privacy online, but that I'd used my NewEgg account and completed the VerifiedByVISA process, and that I was shipping to a verified address, etc. The support guy said he couldn't un-cancel my order; I'd just have to re-order using "my real IP" this time. Fine, I grumbled. I went through the process again; when I supplied NewEgg's cart app with my account credentials this time, I was told that my account was suspended! I called NewEgg again; apparently my account was suspended because of the "suspicious transaction" referenced above. It took me a half hour to get my account reinstated.
I once experimented and added a machine to the Tor network as an exit point for web traffic.
A couple of hours later I wasn't welcome at slashdot any more. You can guess where that experiment ended.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
That's OK, provided you don't live in a country governed by a facist regime. In the UK, failure to disclose encryption keys to the police upon request can land you in prison, regardless of whether or not you've committed any other crimes.
in the first week i used tor my bank decided to shut me out of online banking for a week and paypal put me through a rigorous 'identity confirmation' protocol that included them depositing money in my cheuqing account, calling me at home and mailing (as in paper and stamps) a magic 5 digit code.
and i still use tor. every day.
because a police state is far less convenient.
2 1337 4 u!