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First Library To Support Anonymous Internet Browsing Halts Project After DHS Email

Posted by Soulskill on from the won't-somebody-think-of-the-children dept.

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.

3 of 130 comments (clear)

  1. Bullshit ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    God I'm so sick of this bullshit:

    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,"

    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.
  2. But what about the books? by gurps_npc · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Do they let people read the books in the library without checking them out?

    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
  3. Re:Will somebody... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The judge and my therapist says I shouldn't think of the children so much.