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UK ISP Tests SIM Card That Forces All of Your Mobile Data Through Tor (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: [O]ne UK grassroots internet service provider is currently testing a data only SIM card that blocks any non-Tor traffic from leaving the phone at all, potentially providing a more robust way to use Tor while on the go. "This is about sticking a middle finger up to mobile filtering, mass surveillance," Gareth Llewelyn, founder of Brass Horn Communications, told Motherboard in an online chat. Brass Horn is a non-profit internet service provider with a focus on privacy and anti-surveillance services. Tor is a piece of software and a related network run by volunteers. When someone runs Tor on their computer or phone, it routes their traffic through multiple servers before reaching its final destination, such as a website. That way, the website owner can't tell who is visiting; only that someone is connecting from Tor. The most common way people access Tor is with the Tor Browser Bundle on desktop, or with the Orbot app on Android.
But, in some cases, neither of these totally guarantee that all of your device's traffic will be routed through Tor. If you're using the Tor Browser Bundle on a laptop, and then go to use another piece of software, that app is probably not going to use Tor. The same might stand for Orbot running on older iterations of Android. Nathan Freitas, from The Guardian Project which maintains Orbot, said with newer versions of Android, you can lock down device traffic to only work if a specific VPN is activated, including Orbot's. This SIM card, however, is supposed to provide a more restricted solution in the event that other approaches don't quite work. The UK-exclusive SIM card requires that users create a new access point name on their device. It also requires Orbot to be installed and running on the device itself.
But, in some cases, neither of these totally guarantee that all of your device's traffic will be routed through Tor. If you're using the Tor Browser Bundle on a laptop, and then go to use another piece of software, that app is probably not going to use Tor. The same might stand for Orbot running on older iterations of Android. Nathan Freitas, from The Guardian Project which maintains Orbot, said with newer versions of Android, you can lock down device traffic to only work if a specific VPN is activated, including Orbot's. This SIM card, however, is supposed to provide a more restricted solution in the event that other approaches don't quite work. The UK-exclusive SIM card requires that users create a new access point name on their device. It also requires Orbot to be installed and running on the device itself.
Supporting SONY is a case of "no sympathy" because of their stance on DRM, locking their hardware down even after you've bought it off them, and the other million reasons this company should FOAD.
There are very few companies to buy from in good conscience, in fairness to your purchasing decisions.
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
Exit nodes can see all the data going through them, but they do not know where that data originates from. If you use TLS on top of the Tor circuit, it is unlikely that the exit node can figure out who you are. To do so would require the exit node to also control your entry node and to run a sophisticated timing attack; unsurprisingly, Tor takes measures to guard against it. Exits are also regularly probed for malicious behaviour like traffic sniffing and banned from the network if caught doing that.