I don’t know. I precisely think that “being an ally” is the easiest way to get into trouble with surveillance people.
All of those solutions only serve for your guardians to label you a criminal until proven wrong, or average joes labeling you crazy. Even in this reality of paranoia-becoming-true, when someone talks about people spying on us over the internet, most people still thinks of a tin-hat-wearing guy.
And, seriously, who in his right mind would use tor? It’s been already proven a target for the NSA, and I don’t think a tool used by pedophiles is something anyone should get involved with. All you need for your life to be destroyed is being suspected of being a pedo, you don’t even need to be one.
Even before it was admittedly compromised, Tor was already too dubious. I bet the presence of tor in a computer or phone is more than enough grounds to be suspected of criminal activity from the POV of the law enforcers, and I am sure juries will accept it as evidence. Why would this person use tor if he has nothing to hide?
Until there are strong laws against warrantless mass data collection on citizens, any noise we make can be considered a subversive act, or easily twisted in our detriment. I don’t want to be a martyr for a cause we can’t really fight unless every single one of us gets to it.
I was born on the edge of poverty, getting in trouble with the law will cost my entire life. I’ll play it safe, thank you very much.
Ya, that is my problem with Tor as well, the pedo garbage. I can’t run an exit node if there is a chance I will get into trouble for child porn being passed through it. Nor do I want to aid people trading that in any way.
Perhaps that is just part of the price one must pay if they want to help ensure people who really need masked communications have access to it.
The rest of the risks I don’t care about.
Congratulations on your first post!
Several of the ideas are good: HTTPS-Everywhere is especially useful, if you use public wifi a lot. Because plenty of people are STILL using Firesheep.
And agreed, TOR is slow, compromised, and paints a target on you. Especially these days, when a prosecutor can zap almost ANYONE for a technical violation of some obscure regulation or law. . .
And even if a law is passed, I’m fairly sure it will either have no teeth, or that one or another aspect of the National Security State will merely change the name and program location, and continue merrily eavesdropping on us all. . .
It also doesn’t matter WHICH party is in charge, they’ve both been building and supporting it since the 1950s. Absent some major cataclysm, I don’t see it ending. . .
I don’t see it ending, sadly, either. I see it expanding for run of the mill criminal cases, that the supreme court may deem legal.
Oh, I have another account but I completely forgot the login, so had to make a new one…
I am really disappointed by the EFF. The NSA rarely send somebody to physically attack your computer, but they regularly send request to big company like google. Even if you encrypt all your disc and use double authentication with google, the NSA will have all the information it need.
If Edward Snowden would have use all those advices, we would never heard from him. What save him was that he was using a secure email and not Gmail. The first step is to move out of Gmail and similar services.
Don’t worry to much about the pedophile using TOR. There is probably a pedophile are probably using Google, yahoo and any other major site. There is probably a pedophile using a car and a computer. People don’t stop using those tool because a pedophile use them. A lot of people use TOR for legitimate privacy purpose and anybody claiming that all TOR user are pedophile is just ridiculing himself.
I think the EFF is fighting a noble cause, but-
you could just keep sensitive information off of the internet and out of email, not connect computers containing said information to the internet, physically secure those that do, transmit information by non-electronic means (they do still exist), and be careful who you talk to.
That is probably the most depressing thing I have read all week. When the people are afraid to stand up to increasing tyranny then we are in trouble indeed. The bastards are winning.
can someone from the NSA confirm this? kthx.
You are betting on the complete and total subjugation of every positive and enlightening thing the internet makes possible but please, do go on ranting your poisonous garbage.
No, the bastards have WON. We’re just starting to notice the chains. . .
So, I followed Cory’s advice (to listen to EFF’s advice). And I installed the HTTPS Everywhere plugin. And yet somehow I am not typing this comment over HTTPS !
Does BoingBoing practice what it preaches ?
Yes, pedos use google and stuff. But how is it the same than someone using your tor node for kid porn? There’s already been one case of someone suspected of dealing kiddy porn because someone used tor for it, and he happened to be the exit node.
The comparison doesn’t hold at all, those services you mention are hosted by large companies, not one single person offering the node out of kindness. Guess who is going to be prosecuted or suspected of being a deviant.
Besides, this is about perception. Of course there are people using it for privacy, but at the end of the day it’s just painting a target on their backs because of the rotten apples.
Can you positively warrant it’s never going to happen? You call my “rant” poisonous, just because you are more optimistic? Can’t we just agree to disagree without going personal?
OK, I understand your concern. But you are not required to be an exit node to use tor. If you might have that kind of issue, you can use the network without being an exit node.
For my rather weak technical understanding, I think they haven’t implemented SSL on this particular domain. Financial cost (self-signed certs are free, I think) is small, but the technical requirements can make it more difficult, especially if they use the Flux Capacitor method. Then it’s on till the break of dawn.
Are you asking if I can prove that no group of jurors could ever make such a mistaken conclusion, especially given the proliferation of the misinformation you have chosen to repeat?
Are you genuinely asking me to prove a negative?
I called your speech act a rant because it is senseless, blustering pontification.
It is, as I believe I have established, poisonous.
If you are wrapped up in your opinions to the point where you are insulted by their criticism, it is unlikely I can offer you any other recourse.
