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Google announces uProxy

engadget.com

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Re: Google announces uProxy

#51

Post by simias »

znowi wrote: post #35
draugadrotten wrote: post #12

> "If someone from a country with limited internet access installs uProxy, they can get a friend from the US to authorize them to surf the open web using their connection. " In effect, they would also be sending all their sensitive, potentially illegal traffic to be read and copied by the american NSA agency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%2... People proxying illegal traffic through the U…

> I can see CIA looking at how their propaganda are affecting foreign nations by seeing who reads it from where Interestingly, this is the second Google project on HN today that caters to people in oppressive countries. uProxy and recently announced Project Shield [1]. The major targets are Syria and Iran. Incidentally, they're also targets for the US military :) Intel from the enemy territory will certainly be of in…

If it's PR that actually helps build viable tools used to circumvent censorship and improve privacy on the web in general then I'm all for it. Rather that than some silly TV ad campaign, don't you think?

Re: Google announces uProxy

#54

Post by esteth »

nwh wrote: post #40
esteth wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it appears to be open source and peer to peer, so you don't need to trust Google at all?

Open source does not mean secure. Half the time nobody even reads the source, let alone compares the binaries to the repository.

It's a chrome extension, so the source you see is the code executed by your browser.

Re: Google announces uProxy

#55

Post by StavrosK »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #19
nfm wrote: post #4

Official links: http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/new-free-expressio... http://uproxy.org/

Much more useful than the engadget link. Thanks!

Why isn't there a link to this from the Engadget article? That is useless and shoddy. Do they not know how the internet works, or have a single shred of common sense?

Re: Google announces uProxy

#56

Post by amiramir »

nfm wrote: post #4

Official links: http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/new-free-expressio... http://uproxy.org/

Thanks. I like some of the other initiatives listed there. Digital Attack Map is interesting to peruse though the graphics could be a bit clearer.

Re: Google announces uProxy

#57

Post by StavrosK »

r0h1n wrote: post #48

Another "free" Google service that blinds lay people from objectively considering the cost vs. benefits of online privacy/anonymity (since "free" tends to make us act irrationally). Instead, consider paying the equivalent of a cup or two of coffee and buy yourself a real VPN subscription. Even if you must get yourself a free VPN, consider someone other than Google, a company that already has so much data on your digi…

Did you read the article? It's not a Google service. Why buy a "real" VPN subscription instead of running things through a friend, which is way more decentralized and harder to surveil en masse?

Re: Google announces uProxy

#58

Post by svantana »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #15

Nice! So I can use uProxy to access the Google Play store to buy a Nexus phone? ("Sorry, not available in your country") Thanks Google :-)

Remains only to figure out how to route the physical delivery via a US address... anyone know of such a service? I'd find that pretty useful actually. A lot of stuff on e.g. Amazon is only available for delivery to the US.

Re: Google announces uProxy

#59

Post by sentenza »

simias wrote: post #47
draugadrotten wrote: post #12

> "If someone from a country with limited internet access installs uProxy, they can get a friend from the US to authorize them to surf the open web using their connection. " In effect, they would also be sending all their sensitive, potentially illegal traffic to be read and copied by the american NSA agency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%2... People proxying illegal traffic through the U…

While technically true "the US" here is only used as an example, I don't believe the endpoints have to be in the US (if I understand correctly any user of this extension can choose to become a proxy). An other point in the video (at around 0:50) mentions that you can select your route through trusted friends. If that's true it means that you can decide where your traffic transits. Now obviously if you use the binary…

An important point that should be checked would certainly be if and when the plugin on its own tries to contact servers in the US, be they servers of Google or of the other parties involved.

If it doesn't, it deserves the attention of a more thorrough check.

I really like the idea of this, but somehow have a longing for the world we lived in one year ago, when news of such a project would not have been "tainted" by attaching the name of Google to it.

Sigh.

Re: Google announces uProxy

#60

Post by StavrosK »

From a cursory reading, 70% of the comments in here are people who came straight to this page to say "I don't trust Google/why wouldn't they do /Google will just shut this down".

Can we stop with the kneejerk reactions? This is a p2p browser extension, doesn't run through Google, wasn't developed by Google, the only involvement Google had was maybe fund it.

Are we going to be getting these comments any time Google is mentioned from now on?

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