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How Tor Helps Both Dissidents and the Police
Al writes "Technology Review has a in-depth article about the anonymous networking software Tor and how it is helping dissidents spread information in oppressive regimes such as Syria, Zimbabwe and Mauritania, and opening up the unfiltered web for users in many more countries. In China, for instance, the computers found in some web cafes are configured to use Tor automatically. Interestingly, some police agencies even use the software to hide their activity from suspects. As filtering becomes ever more common in democratic countries such as the US, perhaps Tor (and similar tools such as I2P), will become even more valuable."
It cuts both ways.
You can use a knife for cooking, mugging or for police action.
But the more problematic criminals are also the ones that are most likely to be aware of this and be careful with what and who they trust.
And the most careful persons in organized crime have sometimes only been relying on trusted messengers that have been doing all their communication. That to avoid wiretaps.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Ok, where and when in the US did filtering become 'common'??
I'm hearing about it becoming common in other western countries...and am afraid it will happen here, but, I'm not aware of it being common here?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I recall slashdot discussing this previously in terms of Freenet, although it's probably not a full discussion of legal ramifications (since everyone here says IANAL compulsively). You'll find it here.
As far as I can tell, much like any legal issue, most of what you'll find as far as legal discussion is mainly a lot of "Well, such-and-such may or may not apply here. Please consult your lawyer."
As if we all just have consitutional (if you're in the US) lawyers on retainer. I wish people would just give some advice, even though it will not be authoritative.
For some specific dissembling on this topic, you can also see freenet's legal FAQ.
Exit nodes can easily sniff everything you transmit across the unencrypted web. That's why you don't use it for anything requiring secrets.
If you're worried about it, use the darknet:
http://eqt5g4fuenphqinx.onion/
If you do choose to report it, be sure to report it in an anonymous manner. The reporter will be the first suspect, and the easiest mark for a conviction.
Yes, this is a weakness. Hopefully multiple alphabet soup agencies from different countries will get this idea and end up competing with each other. An arms race of diminishing returns to get a bigger chunk of the Tor network just means we'll have plenty of free Tor bandwidth on the gov't dime.
Protip: You can edit the Tor config or source code to pick geographically diverse nodes yourself.
As filtering becomes ever more common in democratic countries such as the US [...]
I'm wondering for a long time, if you really still can call the US and many other (eg European) states "democratic".
I mean, has the choice between two variants of the same shit still the right to call itself this?
I'm very lucky, that things like Tor, and research around it, still exist. It might soon be our only chance of freeing ourselves from a regime of total control.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
I have thought for some time that privacy is the next killer app. The person who solves the privacy problem will make a stack of money.
of idiots hyperfocused on western domestic "crimes" while the taliban takes over nuclear pakistan
but of course, this is no reason to focus your criticisms outside the west, right? because what goes on in pakistan is after all totally the west's fault
(smacks forehead)
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
It seems your reality doesn't co-exist with the parents', or mine. "Posturing upper middle class suburban poser"? Are there such people like that left in Amerika? I haven't seen many middle-class for a while.
You might be surprised to find that feelings of oppression by law enforcement are common in people that aren't rich enough to drive a Lexus, or related to the local polital families. I've personally been on the receiving end of a police raid without a warrant, and held almost a week without charges being filed. That was in Dallas, Texas. I moved from there to smaller towns and found that the "quality" of the legal system was fairly constant. In Wichita, Kansas I learned that noone got away with murder ... except the city cops. So many people died in custody that they didn't even bother reporting it in the news if the family couldn't raise enough of a public outcry. Investigations always found the police or guards either innocent, or "under-trained". Small towns in Missouri, California, Oklahoma, and Tennessee aren't any better. I've talked with men that resigned their seat on the judges bench because they couldn't stand the institutionalized corruption any more.
You might want to see how the poorer people (a rapidly growing demographic) are treated by the cops, then you might re-think who serves whom. You think people join the police force to serve the public? Maybe at first, but eventually you wind up with a force full of bullies with badges. They are the enforcers for the local lawyers, judges, and city councilmen, sometimes a church pastor or local businessman gets in on the action.
It's just like the mob, but they have "the law" on their side. I've actually known drug dealers that kept their word, and had a higher level of self-respect and personal honor than members of the local police force. The dealer wouldn't lie to you unless he caught you lying to him, first. The police are given a blank check to lie to "suspects" (anybody), but make it a serious crime for anyone to (even inadvertantly) lie to them.
And yes, I am posting AC because I've no desire to be made into an example. I've seen enough of those, thankyou.