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Is Tor still safe to use?

blog.torproject.org

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Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#521

Post by idiotsecant »

p4bl0 wrote: post #352
alfiedotwtf wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s that expensive to run Tor nodes, who is actually paying for them? I’ve heard individuals getting doors kicked in for participating in the network, so it’s not individuals. Corporates too wouldn’t want this type of burden… so is it really just spy-vs-spy

Many individuals contribute to running relays. And there are non-profit organizations collecting donations to operates Tor exit nodes: - https://www.torservers.net/ - https://nos-oignons.net/

This is probably strictly true but it smacks to me of 'many people say'. I wonder what % of TOR nodes are run by people with an ideological allegiance for the network vs how many are run by nation-state actors.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#522

Post by pc86 »

gen2brain wrote: post #511
pc86 wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's not discount the validity of making it easier for Russians, or Chinese, or North Koreans, to get western media.

Because how else would they know that Kamala used to work in mcdonalds. Pure gold in western media.

If you think my comment can in any way be construed as saying all western media is great, please get help.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#523

Post by orthecreedence »

jstanley wrote: post #13

The best attack against Tor is convincing people not to use it. If anyone tries to convince you Tor is not safe, ask yourself: cui bono?

> cui bono?

You look for the person who will benefit, and uhh...uhh you know, uhh, you know, you'll uhh, uhh. Well, you know what I'm trying to say.

- VI Lenin

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#524

Post by digging »

gspencley wrote: post #469
maxrecursion wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that is a crappy thing to do, I bet tons of YouTubers are doing just that. Hell, most political YouTubers just read articles and make stupid comments about them. It would be impossible to create daily content if you weren't just rehashing, or taking, information from somewhere. Again, not defending it at all, just saying it's probably a very common thing. Like how some crappy news articles are just a bunch of r…

> While that is a crappy thing to do, I haven't watched this particular channel so maybe it's obviously shady, but I'm curious: why is this conceptually a crappy thing to do? I mean, if you take the IP of others and redistribute it verbatim then I definitely see the ethical issue. So if the claim is that he's reading peoples' comments or posts verbatim without credit then yeah that's crappy. Don't get me wrong. But i…

> But if all we're talking about is "mining" websites like HN for topics and then creating original content that covers those topics in a different format for a different audience... where's the issue?

Plagiarism, generally. I really enjoyed the semi-recent hbomberguy video on why it matters, and a later response (from another channel) on "The Somerset Scale of Plagiarism" for a more rigorous explanation of what the different kinds of "content reuse" can be. Those are generally where my current model of plagiarism comes from.

A specific concern would be the inaccurate telling of information that isn't understood. A video saying, "Here I will summarize this HN thread," is perfectly ok, and a good thing. A video saying, "Here I will tell you how $thing works," should be well researched and cited. Doesn't matter if the content's entirely from an HN thread for from 40 different SEO farms, it's low-quality content and it's wasting everyone's time at best, and probably actively misinforming people. (Because how true and complete is information gleaned from HN comments anyway?)

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#525

Post by berkes »

pc86 wrote: post #441
berkes wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, most of these same sectors in the same governments have strong need to be protected from spying themselves. So in many cases it's really a case of "we want a monopoly on secrecy". Which should be a massive red flag for everyone, from left to right, from liberal to conservative, from anarchist to communist and so on. But somehow isn't picked up by any of these. I presume because they all believe somehow th…

Several of those ideologies you mention are just different flavors of authoritarianism, and one of an ideological authoritarian's primary goals is power. Hell, take out "anarchist" and you could make a convincing argument they're all authoritarians in their own way. You don't get power by giving the populace - or helping them to keep - a free, secure Internet. It's just completely antithetical to someone who wants to…

That was deliberate: a way of saying "probably even those who align with authoritarianism won't like governments to have a monopoly on secrets".

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#527

Post by digging »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #427
alecco wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice presentation. Ironically the ?si= parameter is for tracking. You should remove it.

Is it sad that when someone else gives me a video with an si parameter or similar, I keep it on when passing it forward, in my eyes, this feeds garbage to their backend.

> this feeds garbage to their backend

How is a timestamped chain of communication between persons interested in a particular topic "garbage"?

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#528

Post by TylerE »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #501
dev1ycan wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The argument is that using "privacy" tools makes it easier for a party to single you out, and they do have a point.

They have the opposite of a point. The logical conclusion of that line of reasoning is that everyone should use privacy tools so no one can be singled out. And that ordinary users with "nothing to hide" should be the first to start using them.

Why should ordinary users do something that provides no meaningful benefit and makes their experience substantially worse?

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#529

Post by School-Cotton »

wood-porch wrote: post #514
School-Cotton wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s true that the vast majority of HN users use ad blockers. I don’t, and I don’t find the web “practically unusable”.

Being the exception to the rule doesn’t disprove the rule

Indeed, but I doubt I’m so exceptional. I’ve seen a lot of tech savvy people not using ad blockers.

Re: Is Tor still safe to use?

#530

Post by PurestGuava »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #503
wildzzz wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only 100% safe method is to not do the illegal activity at all. There's always a risk/rewards analysis to be performed when committing any act that could have negative consequences whether you're playing the stock market or doing credit card fraud. For any major criminal that gets caught, you can usually read the arrest affidavit which offers a pretty interesting look into how the criminal was caught despite the…

> The only 100% safe method is to not do the illegal activity at all. Nope. Not even that is 100% safe because you can be falsely convicted of a crime you never even committed. Many privacy tools reduce that risk as well, because you're less likely to be convicted by e.g. a lazy prosecutor willing to take things out of context if you provide them with less source material to trawl through.

> Nope. Not even that is 100% safe because you can be falsely convicted of a crime you never even committed.

That's so exceptionally unlikely as to be something you can discount as a possibility, providing you don't actually commit crimes.

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