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Tor Researchers' Tool Aims To Map Out Internet Censorship

Posted by Unknown on from the developers-mysteriously-disappear-during-senate-csipa-vote dept.

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "Tor developers Arturo Filasto and Jacob Appelbaum have released OONI-probe, an open-source software tool designed to be installed on any PC and run to collect data about local meddling with the computer's network connections, whether it be website blocking, surveillance or selective bandwidth slowdowns. Unlike other censorship tracking projects like HerdictWeb or the Open Net Initiative, OONI will allow anyone to run the testing application and share their results publicly. The tool has already been used to expose censorship by T-Mobile of its prepaid phones' browser and also by the Palestinian Authority, which was found to be blocking opposition websites. The minister responsible for the Palestinian censorship was forced to resign last week."

11 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Risk? by ohnocitizen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What are the risks for anyone found running OONI-probe in a surveillance heavy country?

    1. Re:Risk? by filthpickle · · Score: 5, Insightful

      up to and including death.

    2. Re:Risk? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Such a coddled, uncreative human being you must be, to think that 'death' is the ultimate punishment.

    3. Re:Risk? by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you're in such a country, you don't need OONI - you know you're already censored.

      This looks to be more a tool against those regimes that claim to be open and against censorship, by pulling aside the curtain and revealing the reality - as, according to TFA, has already happened in Palestine.

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    4. Re:Risk? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you're in such a country, you don't need OONI - you know you're already censored.

      WRONG !

      OONI still comes handy even if you stay in countries run by authoritarian / totalitarian / bastard governments

      With OONI you can identify _which_ sites they have censored, and you can use OONI to share THAT information to the world

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  2. Pertinent by djnanite · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Especially in light of the UK's recent decision to block The Pirate Bay.

    I wonder what the legal recourse would be if this tool found the government in your respective 'free' democratic country was blocking sites for political reasons...? Could anyone sue the UK government if they were found to be blocking sites without providing a genuine legal reason for doing so?

    1. Re:Pertinent by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Informative

      In princible, vote for someone who says they'll lift the blocks. Accountability in a democracy is via the vote. How well that works in practice varies greatly by country.

  3. ironic by jsh1972 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kind of ironic that with the multiple tor-centered stories on slashdot today that just now, when I tried to view this story, I was told that my IP was banned! I thought WTH, then realized that I had tor enabled on the device I was browsing on... (HP touchpad running cm9). I guess I can post AC, I just can't BROWSE anonymous...

  4. I'd love to run it.... by BLKMGK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I cannot find anything on the site that appears to make it available to me in a form I can run, a GIT repo for devs and some press releases is all. I suppose I could hit the "secure" .onion site but I see nothing to indicate there's code there. the summary appears to make it sound like they want participation and I'd love to help but see no way to do so.

    Am I the only one that finds this clear as mud?

    --
    Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
    1. Re:I'd love to run it.... by jgrahn · · Score: 3, Informative

      A git repo is (presumably) a "form you can run". Because, you know... "News for nerds", etc.

      That's what I thought before I clicked the link. It takes you to a list of dozens or hundreds of repos, private and public, for different pieces of software. No indication which one, if any, contains this particular release of this software. That's not how you release something.

  5. Re:Inaccessible for everyone or just me? by Plunky · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A nice tool to get a hint of if a certain website is down/inaccessibel for everyone or just you is This Tool!

    This service attempts to make a connection to a website of your choice so you can see if it is just your ISP that can't access it.

    Of course, since that is a known site it could easily be redirected to a locally hosted copy that said "Yes, that site is down for everybody! Its not just you!" for sites that were being blocked..