Javascript exploit actively used against TorBrowser

Regarding needing more than TOR, not necessarily so. There are many oppressive states (on different points of a large spectrum, from basic censorship to actual physical oppression), and though we read many stories about their crackdowns on privacy rights and monitoring facilities, very often we over-estimate their capabilities (e.g. the GFW of China is rather sad joke, technically speaking). So if you're not your state's Public Enemy Number 1, you're within a risk range that's most likely acceptable using TOR, so long as you use it correctly and carefully (and that you accept that risk...). Basically, it boils down to what you said: "if they do care enough to come for you, and they have the resources".

Indeed, I was also probably a bit over-simplistic in my previous answer: there are different leagues with different ball-games.

For the rest, we're in agreement.

What exactly? A non-technical user can plug a flashdrive on an usb port. Other than that, it's basically read instructions and doing exactly what the instructions are telling, which should be what "regular" operating systems already make you do. But obviously that is the perspective of a power user. In the quality of someone trying to teach people how to use tails I also perceive the barrier imposed. I am convinced that the best path to lower this barrier is to constantly question "what exactly", until we find out.

---

> -It disrupts their regular workflow

I am afraid that this is non negotiable, although other people may disagree. I advocate that security and privacy is less about the digital tools I use and more about my habits and perspective. Much energy is wasted trying to make "fool-proof" tools, but that is ignoring the fact that the responsibility shall be on the end user, and not in the developers. There are parts of the tails documentation explaining those things much better worded than my comment.

---

> -People get frustrated with speeds of Tor etc

That is frustrating for much people. Many people don't want to be part of any anarchist agenda, but there is simply no alternative. The tor network probably will continue to be volunteer driven and an instrument of tech resistance, and that's not a hipster thing, the network is suffering real world attacks and almost always being flagged as a bad thing.

---

> -People get frustrated with Captcha (Dam Cloudflare!) and other things caused by using Tor in a safe manner.

Adding to the above comment, it boils down to the same thing. I understand that people don't want to be tricked in political agenda, but this really is about system administrators deliberately blocking tor traffic because they don't want to deal with the tor network, or because they've read somewhere that tor traffic is bad. This basically should be motivating "genuine" tor users to demand that tor network stops being blocked everywhere, but like I said, people shouldn't have to feel obligated to engage in political agenda. Although I personally advocate for the exact opposite elsewhere ;)

---

> -People get annoyed as it doesn't solve their problems and exposure on mobile

That's important. Being android a linux based system, one would think that by now we'd have something like tails for smartphones too. But is not that simple. These devices started to being manufactured in a time that placing backdoors in the hardware or in a lower software level is easier, therefore making harder to secure them, compared to desktops/laptops. That said, there are plenty initiatives and things being developed to bring security and privacy for mobile devices, but I agree that it's not yet "for the masses".

---

> -You have to restart to run it

> -They can't run their regular programs on it - MS Office, Outlook, Adobe, etc.

> -It's Linux based, so a big mental jump for most people coming from Windows (or most people not at the command line on OS X)

I can't think of other answer to that than "that's closed source people's fault, blame microsoft and adobe". I am aware that this answer doesn't solve people's problems.

---

> -It's hard to access files on other drives

I don't fully agree with this one. However, I agree that the default GNOME look and feel doesn't provide an obvious "my computer" sort of thing. That is well done on many ways in linux distros. Previous versions of tails had that solved. GTK devs, where are thou? The tails website has called everyone already, little help here =)

---

> -Documentation and TAILS is only available in certain languages

I am one of the lazy volunteer translators who should dedicate more time translating tails than the other futile things I do with my life. I hope more potential translators feel ashamed as well.

---

> -It often has driver problems - e.g Macbook Pro 2015 WIFI issues

I acknowledge that as a big problem, because people shouldn't have to compile drivers just to use an operational system. But I can't miss this one: "that's apple's fault!".

---

> -In developing states, computer literacy is low, so anything other than the norm (Windows) is confusing

> -In developing states, hardware tends to be slow (often counterfeit) so running TAILS in RAM is slow

> -People lose the USB sticks they put TAILS on (also many counterfeits, so they often fail or have a false size)

Here is the magic point where the "go blame microsoft" arguments have no sense and lose their meaning. This is the kind of reality that I see everyday and that I think should be top priority in tails development. Whose privacy and security issues are we trying to address? I don't mean to be rude, but I believe people with easy access to macbooks, fast internet connection and with means to buy many disposable usb flashdrives won't understand easily, if not at all, what it is having to operate frankenstein machines and to have only one usb flashdrive which is probably used by other people. This is serious shit because apart from the everyday problems, when these people are offered "digital inclusion", it is often something to take away for good their privacy and security, and everyday there are less gaps and possibilities of "hacking" the way out of censorship and surveillance. See internet dot org for the most nefarious example.

---

> -TAILS often requires training, which not everyone has access to

> -Skills fade for digital security training with journalists/activists is often quite high, especially if they don't need it that often.

Again that divides my opinion. I recognize that the tails doc people should always improve it bearing in mind that anyone should be able to operate tails just from reading the docs, and should be the most accessible as possible. In the other hand, security and privacy are not subjects you can solve by means of digital tools alone. There are not, and there shall be not any magical tool that dispenses the concomitant lectures people should listen to while trying to address privacy and security.

That's enough to state that there are cases where the access to information is more important than anonymity.

R.I.P. Aaron

I disagree with that and I am on favor of illegal actions against criminal actions.

I just think that this is not FBI's role. Illegal organizations should assume the illegal work. If FBI commits crimes to fight crimes, then to me they're as criminal as the folks they're hunting, and therefore I would treat them the same way I treat the "regular" criminal people.