Live data from Hacker News

Tor Browser 12.0

blog.torproject.org

131–140 of 230 posts

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#131

I once spoke with someone who knew someone who ran an exit node in Europe. He told crazy stories with police knocking every once in a while. Also the legal structure to do that was tricky, because you want to avoid the police searching your house; you'd also like tl spread responsability on multiple shoulders. So you have to create a kind of non-profit organization and run the exit node through that. It's very hard w…

I once tweeted something like:

> "For those of you interested in running an exit node, just be safe. Always remember to run it via your company's VPN to ensure the safety of those making passage through."

The engagement was nuts and the sheer amount of people who use ToR but were unfamiliar with what a statement actually says was frightening.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't emailing @dang be against the purpose of Tor, which is to enhance privacy? Just use webmail in your tor browser. And don't send it from your main gmail, but create a throwaway.

Neither Google search nor YouTube seem to work (other than very sporadically, presumably if they've not had chance to block an IP yet) over Tor, does GMail?

it makes you enter a captcha (not a recaptcha though oddly) and you need javascript on, but it is possible to sign in and use gmail over tor. idk about creating accounts.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#133
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Not Run An Exit Node! very few people have legitimate uses for an exit node. And it is a security nigthmare for everyone (you owning their crimes, them being at your MiTM attacks mercy, etc) But Do Run A Tor Node! everyone should join tor and it should become the main net, with only tor traffic.

> But Do Run A Tor Node! Just a word of caution, while running a non-exit node is obviously safer from a legal point of view, the entire list of active tor nodes isn’t secret, and there are enough people in the world that do not understand how tor works that the chance is non-zero that you’ll still end up on a block list somewhere for simply being a “tor node”, even though you never let any of the tor traffic out on…

Happened to me too. Worked from home and it showed up I was logging in via Tor. They were not pleased.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#134

All comments here focus on extreme cases: The police viewing you as a possible suspect, FBI becoming interested in you etc. Here is a much more mundane problem: Using Tor (even a VPN) while logging in to most big Silicon Valley firma that make money with your data (LinkedIn, Facebook, Tinder etc.) will result in your profile being suspended REAL FAST with the only way out to upload your gov't ID, i.e. complete deanon…

weird that facebook would suspend you for using tor when they have an official onion service.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on this? I think I'm missing some context.

Based on their blog post where they want more deplatforming capabilities https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/we-need-more-than-deplat... There was also a comment from one of the Tor foundation members about how they wish they were able to deplatform kiwi farms from tor but it’s technically not possible.

Ah thanks. Never saw this. I read that post as almost "deplatforming doesn't work" (a statement I tend to agree with) but I guess the word "more" implies they support deplatforming AS WELL AS other things. Interesting.

I would kind of hope Mozilla sees themselves as neutral carriers. Maybe that's not the case. Still better than Google though.

> they wish they were able to deplatform kiwi farms from tor but it’s technically not possible.

Well, then they built it correctly!

It seems to me people like this want technological solutions to problems rooted in culture and economics. I think the best solution is don't stop people from saying bad things, instead teach others to know when not to listen to the bad things. I guess it's a new phase of humanity though...Dunbar's number might not be changing, but who's in a person's circle is now wildly distributed. I'm not sure of a great solution to people believing birds aren't real or that Qanon isn't a pimply teenager on 4chan, but banning morons from Twitter isn't a real solution. Interesting times.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Not Run An Exit Node! very few people have legitimate uses for an exit node. And it is a security nigthmare for everyone (you owning their crimes, them being at your MiTM attacks mercy, etc) But Do Run A Tor Node! everyone should join tor and it should become the main net, with only tor traffic.

Well, I’m going to burn some karma by agreeing with you. Running an exit node is a bit like operating a no questions asked gun shop in downtown (some deprived city). Sure, there’s perfectly legitimate reasons to own and therefore sell a gun to someone, but that particular shop will be in the business of facilitating crime - and that’s a bad thing and therefore not a moral occupation.

If you run an ISP, chances are 100% that people will use it to feed their pornography and gambling addictions. That ISP will be in the business of ruining lives. Does that make running an ISP am immoral occupation?

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on then, no need to be coy.

For example, once or twice people called me (somehow) and asked why I was hacking their websites. I tried to explain, but I doubt I convinced anyone.

How would a non government entity get a physical address or phone number from an IP ?

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#138

I once spoke with someone who knew someone who ran an exit node in Europe. He told crazy stories with police knocking every once in a while. Also the legal structure to do that was tricky, because you want to avoid the police searching your house; you'd also like tl spread responsability on multiple shoulders. So you have to create a kind of non-profit organization and run the exit node through that. It's very hard w…

I've noticed more exits with VPN IPs.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#139
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do Not Run An Exit Node! very few people have legitimate uses for an exit node. And it is a security nigthmare for everyone (you owning their crimes, them being at your MiTM attacks mercy, etc) But Do Run A Tor Node! everyone should join tor and it should become the main net, with only tor traffic.

> But Do Run A Tor Node! Just a word of caution, while running a non-exit node is obviously safer from a legal point of view, the entire list of active tor nodes isn’t secret, and there are enough people in the world that do not understand how tor works that the chance is non-zero that you’ll still end up on a block list somewhere for simply being a “tor node”, even though you never let any of the tor traffic out on…

Google shows anti-bot challenges if you run a non-exit relay.

Re: Tor Browser 12.0

#140

The inescapable fact about Tor is that its traffic patterns make you stand out prominently. Just the fact you’re using it automatically makes you interesting and worthy of a closer look. All well and good if you’re just maintaining a cookie recipe site on the dark web, but it’s rarely ever that, is it?

> The inescapable fact about Tor is that its traffic patterns make you stand out prominently. I'm curious as to how it stands out. I can imagine a few things, like an ISP seeing traffic to known TOR intermediary nodes, or maybe analyzing packets to look for some sort of handshake? > Just the fact you’re using it automatically makes you interesting and worthy of a closer look. Sort of. But what would looking do? What…

I don't know if this is true, but I've read that if you plug in the tracking number for a package at USPS.com through Tor, the package will be flagged for inspection.
Post reply on HN