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First Library To Support Anonymous Internet Browsing Halts Project After DHS Email
An anonymous reader writes with an update to the news we discussed in July that a small library in New Hampshire would be used as a Tor exit relay. Shortly after the project went live, the local police department received an email from the Department of Homeland Security. The police then met with city officials and discussed all the ways criminals could make use of the relay. They ultimately decided to suspend the project, pending a vote of the library board of trustees on Sept. 15.
DHS spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the agent was simply providing "visibility/situational awareness," and did not have any direct contact with the Lebanon police or library. "The use of a Tor browser is not, in [or] of itself, illegal and there are legitimate purposes for its use," Neudauer said, "However, the protections that Tor offers can be attractive to criminal enterprises or actors and HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] will continue to pursue those individuals who seek to use the anonymizing technology to further their illicit activity." ...Deputy City Manager Paula Maville said that when she learned about Tor at the meeting with the police and the librarians, she was concerned about the service’s association with criminal activities such as pornography and drug trafficking. "That is a concern from a public relations perspective and we wanted to get those concerns on the table," she said.
Although one could read the discouragement of new Tor exit nodes as a desire to control the majority of exits...
You asked for it, Middle America.
God I'm so sick of this bullshit:
It's legal, and there are legitimate uses for it ... but we're going to list off a bunch of scary hypotheticals, and insinuate how you'd be responsible for everything on the planet.
I hope the library board sends back a big fuck you like librarians sometimes do ... give up the right to anonymity on the notion that it might might lead to something bad is the argument of cowards and fascists.
No matter what anybody likes to think, the US stopped being a free country or a champion of liberty and democracy 14 years ago. And you'll never get it back.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
So how is this any different than someone using the free and open wifi at a Starbucks, McDonalds, Flying J truck stop, etc? Just as anonymous ...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
This is why we can't have nice things....
Even the atomic physics books? Why, someone could learn how to make an ATOMIC BOMB from those.
Do you want to be responsible for that? You better require everyone entering the Library to ask you for the book, so that we can track it.
Also, some of those art books have necked ladies in them. Better give them all to me, so I can make them safe for everyone.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
The judge and my therapist says I shouldn't think of the children so much.
could well be used by the criminal organization to torture and/or murder fellow citizens. Therefore I say we should ban the use of all forks and knives until proper surveillance on forks and knives can be obtained. I'm tired of putting forks and knives into the hands of our criminals!
So very effective is the appeal to animal instinct... The reasonable person hasn't a chance in this world.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Die(slowly) it is, then.
Fear the Tor! "TOR SMASH!!!"
Yeah... maybe I recently watched Plan 9. heh
"Never give up, for that is just the time and place when the tide will change." -Harriet Beecher Stowe ^_^
Just because you can stab someone with a pencil doesn't mean that's its only use.
Did you know they let you have pencils on planes?!
US highways are used to commit crimes every day would closing all the off ramps fix that?
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Good thing I don't live in Lebanon, but I can understand what with the PLA and Arafat causing all those problems for their kosher neighbours to the south.
The government declared war on privacy long ago, and if you make any legitimate attempt to do so they show up at your door demanding papers please.
"Live Free or Die?"
#DeleteChrome
Yet we allow kitchen knives. And we allow people to use fire, and carry fire-starters.
The terrorists have won. They now have us so frightened that we are being forced to give up our liberties and our freedom. And the odd part is that the very organization that is supposed to be protecting us against the terrorists, the TSA, has become the terrorists' weapon of choice against us..
Did you know that criminals can use their brains to come up with crimes! The public should be lobotomized so criminality will be impossible!
Would it work out any better if a large number of libraries turned on exit nodes all at once?
Have you ever actually looked at the traffic from a Tor Exit Node? It's pretty much exactly what the DHS is claiming it is. Yes there are legitimate uses for Tor, but let's be honest here, what the overwhelming majority of Tor uses are using Tor for is not good things.
she was concerned about the service’s association with criminal activities such as pornography and drug trafficking.
*facepalm*
Only criminals or those planning to be criminals (i.e. no right-minded American/<your nationality>) want to use anonymizing technology.
Requiem for the American Dream
In unrelated news, after a visit by DHS, Home Depot decided to voluntarily stop carrying crowbars, bolt cutters, saws, boxcutters and hand tools of all kinds after learning that these tools can be attractive to criminal enterprises or actors. The use of a crowbar is not, in [or] of itself, illegal and there are legitimate purposes for its use. When asked for comment, a Home Depot manager said that when she learned about the illicit uses for tools at the meeting with the police and general contractors, she was concerned about the company's association with criminal activities such as burglary and even murder.
New Hampshire (AP) - According to several reports and eye witness accounts, confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security, New Hampshire roads and highways have been used by thieves in getaway vehicles to evade police efforts to apprehend them. Sources near the NH governors' office report a decree to close roads and highways are going to be closed to vehicular traffic indefinitely could be in effect as early as today. Story will be updated with further developments.
When the copyright term is "forever minus a day", live every day like it's the last.
so funny - isn't that _How_ you get in trouble?!
CAP = receptor
But don't tell the press.
<JediMindTrick>This really is the hope and change you're looking for.</JediMindTrick>
They could have just kept up a user log with a security camera installed to "prevent theft".
Hence New Hampshire's motto: "Live Under Constant Surveillance of America's Security Apparatus or Die". New Hampshire is as pro-government, anti-freedom as any state in the union.
imagine a soft, buttery paw gently pressing down onto a sleeping soldier's face. forever.
Time to update Fahrenheit 451.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Use of a Tor Browser could also cause issues as far as requirements under the Children's Internet Protection Act and other federal level laws which mandate the use of filters in order to receive federal grants (USF and LSTA). If the Library doesn't receive federal grants covering Internet, then it's probably easy peasy (they just have to manually ensure no one is viewing material "harmful to minors".
Personally, I love the idea... but it clashes greatly with the needs for monies to actually run the libraries.
"Psst - we're setting up a honeypot!" .onion isn't that new top level domain for satire?"
"We did it because we get a lot of ex-husbands logging on here."
"Gee - you mean
Next up Civil Liberties and how they protect criminals....
I hope they vote to turn it back on Sept 15th. Fuck, they SHOULD turn it back on.
Since it can be used to do the same thing?
This security theatre is BS.
They ultimately decided to suspend the project, pending a vote of the library board of trustees on Sept. 15.
So a library manager made a decision, that decision generated some contention (for better or worse) and so the matter is submitted it to democratic decision making by the proper authority. If there's a story here, it's what and how the library board of trustees decides and who tries to influence that decision.
Heck, for all we know the board might enthusiastically endorse the project. But seriously /. couldn't wait those 4 days to find out the decision.
"HS spokesman Shawn Neudauer said the agent was simply providing "visibility/situational awareness," and did not have any direct contact with the Lebanon police or library. "The use of a public street is not, in [or] of itself, illegal and there are legitimate purposes for its use," Neudauer said, "However, the protections that a public street offers can be attractive to criminal enterprises or actors and HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] will continue to pursue those individuals who seek to use the public streets to further their illicit activity." ...Deputy City Manager Paula Maville said that when she learned about public streets at the meeting with the police and the librarians, she was concerned about the service’s association with criminal activities such as sex and drug trafficking. "That is a concern from a public relations perspective and we wanted to get those concerns on the table," she said."
Does this properly illuminate the ridiculousness of these claims against anonymizing services, encryption, and other privacy-enabling technologies? Does this finally make it clear that anything can be used for both good or ill intent, and just because it can be used for bad things doesn't mean we shouldn't still have it?
The road in front of my house could be used by criminals and such, so my neighbors and I have started to pull it apart. We'll be the first neighborhood in America to actually be safe from criminal elements using our roads to shop for groceries or commit crimes or whatever bad people do.
btw, I have a car for sale.
The EFF has a letter you can sign in order to show your support and counter this boogyman fearmongering of DHS:
https://act.eff.org/action/support-tor-and-intellectual-freedom-in-libraries
I signed it. Then I blogged about it. See thinkpenguin.com/blog. Will you help get the word out about this campaign?
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin I was tempted to post anonymously...
Since when is pornography a criminial activity?
"Anonaminity". LOL.
... Warning them about the hippies and subversives apparently employed at the local library. This is no different to the FBI demonizing every group that wasn't white and rich, or silent and politically conservative.
The police then met with city officials and discussed all the ways criminals could make use of the relay.
I doubt the police go to the car salesrooms and tell people there all the crimes that can be committed with cars. This is the state of the world today: Refusing to empower people because it also enables criminal behaviour. That leads to world where the elite and moral majority makes all choices and the citizenry make none: Totalitarianism.
could well be used by the criminal organization to torture and/or murder fellow citizens. Therefore I say we should ban the use of all forks and knives until proper surveillance on forks and knives can be obtained. I'm tired of putting forks and knives into the hands of our criminals!
Hah! You've ironically brought up one of my personal pet peeves of the post 9/11 era. In my area of the country at least, I kid you not, sometime after 9/11 the local supermarkets and Walmart all stopped selling boxes of plastic knives. Really! You could not buy a box of regular plastic picnic-type knives. I eventually discovered you could get them as part of an assorted plastic eating utensil package, but plastic knives on their own by the box were out! You could not buy them, anywhere. I tried asking the staff at various stores what was going on, but all of them claimed to know nothing about any ban. The fact remained that boxes of plastic knives were no longer being stocked, just spoons and forks. I had to buy the assorted boxes just to have knives at all, it was crazy! This behavior seems to have finally changed only in the last few years, since most places now seem once again to have boxes of plastic knives... But WTF!!! What was the point of the ban, FFS??? It remains a complete mystery to me. I mean, you could always get metal knives at these stores, really sharp ones, even! Just not plastic, not on their own. Very weird. This country definitely lost a good part of its sanity and common sense following the 9/11 attacks. I can only hope that eventually common sense, like the ubiquitous plastic knife, will once again return to the good old USA. Don't hold your breath, though.
Tor?? Hell, the terrorists use the internet even without it. Internet has to go.
Cars... getaway cars... car bombs... gotta go. Time to get those fat asses walking again anyway.
Trucks... you see terrorists riding in the back of trucks with AK-47s and RPGs. Gotta go.
Baseball bats... gotta go. Hockey sticks look pretty dangerous too.
Airplanes! 9/11. Airplanes have legal uses, but they have to go. Instruments of death and destruction.
Balaclavas, knives, guns... yes guns!! Better get rid of all those. They have legal uses, but bad people like to use them too, so they have to go.
America is going to be the safest place on Earth!
"about the serviceâ(TM)s association with criminal activities such as pornography and drug trafficking."
How is porn related to 'criminal activities' ?
If all libraries with public access computers set up their own Tor network, it would preserve anonymity while removing all the objections raised here.
Wonder if the town would outlaw cars if you explained to them how cars are often used by people to travel to a place to commit a crime and then use it to leave, and use it to get away form the police....