Anyone know about Tor?

[Trav]

Easy way to get a new ip so you can register under another name(s) on forums when banned, easier than J.A.P. AKA JonDo.
It has other uses also but nothing interesting to most people.

 

[Mystic]

Well, there has been one guy at this website who has apparently used numerous different user names and I bet he could tell us a lot about the Tor Network and maybe Tails.

On a positive note, it is my understanding that Tor traffic can now be detected in regular network traffic. If so, the Tor Network could probably be shut down completely.

 

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Easy way to get a new ip so you can register under another name(s) on forums when banned, easier than J.A.P. AKA JonDo.
It has other uses also but nothing interesting to most people.


You don't need Tor or Tails to get a new IP number. You just use an anonoymous proxy server's IP number and port in your network settings. There is however more to hiding your online identity. As for Tor and Tails, they are excellent tools if you live in some country that limits your access to the internet. For example, a Tor user in China can circumvent the government's restrictions on internet sites without getting caught very easily.

People always complain about how much spam they get in their email. Using Tor or Tails will greatly reduce you getting tracked and targeted by marketeers. It even confuses Gmail. Google doesn't know anymore what ads to show you when you check your mail.

I would guess that those who use Tor and Tails for nefarious purposes sooner or later get caught. Maybe not online, but for doing other things they shouldn't be doing.

hotwheels

 

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Well, there has been one guy at this website who has apparently used numerous different user names and I bet he could tell us a lot about the Tor Network and maybe Tails.

On a positive note, it is my understanding that Tor traffic can now be detected in regular network traffic. If so, the Tor Network could probably be shut down completely.


Shutting Tor down would be very difficult due to jurisdiction issues and the prioritizing of resources. Anyway, using Tor is perfectly legal in the USA, and even China has not outlawed it. What you do with it may be illegal. And yes, of course, given sufficient effort, an end can be put to operations, as as has already happened.

The Silk Road was an online black market through which everything from drugs, to weapons, to hitmen and to porn was peddled, possibly also profanity. The FBI seized several of the Silk Road's servers around the world and shut the site down. The guy who ran the operation is coming up for trial in May.

hotwheels

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace)

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Well, there has been one guy at this website who has apparently used numerous different user names and I bet he could tell us a lot about the Tor Network and maybe Tails.


And now you know all the different ways he does it. Most of us don't have problems here and don't need to know how to get back with a new name after being launched.

 

[Mystic]

Seems to me it is a whole lot easier to be disciplined enough to not get in trouble and not get banned in the first place. When I went to school including college there was not much of an internet anyway. And at work I did not try to get to blocked websites. Some people follow the rules. But some people don't care about any rules and just laugh at the rules.

Well, the guy who keeps coming back would be very surprised I think if he had any idea how much I know about him. He was surprised when I knew his name. Just recently I learned a lot more. And I didn't have to break any rules. Knowledge is power.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: hotwheels
The Silk Road was an online black market through which everything from drugs, to weapons, to hitmen and to porn was peddled, possibly also profanity. The FBI seized several of the Silk Road's servers around the world and shut the site down. The guy who ran the operation is coming up for trial in May.


On a positive note, the guy who ran that made some rookie mistakes that got him caught (he kept plain text chat logs, etc.); and the Tor network was not a factor in any way.

Here are some examples of people's varying uses for Tor. There are even some heroes using it!

https://www.torproject.org/about/torusers.html.en

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: Mystic
Seems to me it is a whole lot easier to be disciplined enough to not get in trouble and not get banned in the first place. When I went to school including college there was not much of an internet anyway. And at work I did not try to get to blocked websites. Some people follow the rules. But some people don't care about any rules and just laugh at the rules.

Well, the guy who keeps coming back would be very surprised I think if he had any idea how much I know about him. He was surprised when I knew his name. Just recently I learned a lot more. And I didn't have to break any rules. Knowledge is power.


The guy has a lot of names, he even post to himself. LOL

 

[Mystic]

Yeah, that is pretty funny-when he even talks to himself using different user names. I think he has several user names right now.

He would be very surprised about what I know about him. I know him like a book.

I know about the blue apartment building about 11 blocks from the San Francisco Zoo, where he rode his bicycle almost every day. I know about the beach not too far from the apartment building. I have seen several photos of the 1996 Audi A4 he used to own. I know about his surgery at St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco, and how he returned there again. I know he likes the Moribund band. I know he likes fancy, expensive food and thinks that will keep him healthy. I know about a lot of the books he has read, including the Gothic Literature book. I know a lot more.

I think that is pretty good for an old man who follows the rules and does not know about getting to blacklisted websites.

I think I know enough so that if I ever received a serious threat here the FBI or the San Francisco Police Department would have no trouble contacting him.

 

[hotwheels]

Using Tor or Tails and similar privacy tools doesn't make anyone any more a blackhat than shooting a hunting rifle makes someone necessarily a poacher.

hotwheels

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: hotwheels
Using Tor or Tails and similar privacy tools doesn't make anyone any more a blackhat than shooting a hunting rifle makes someone necessarily a poacher.

hotwheels


Sadly: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/...eeps-your-data/

Police states increase the necessity for things like Tor, though. And it should not be minimized that the NAS is retaining the data; not (attempting to) decrypting it, which is a massive undertaking and not undertaken lightly.

 

[Doog]

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: hotwheels
Using Tor or Tails and similar privacy tools doesn't make anyone any more a blackhat than shooting a hunting rifle makes someone necessarily a poacher.

hotwheels


Sadly: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/...eeps-your-data/

Police states increase the necessity for things like Tor, though. And it should not be minimized that the NAS is retaining the data; not (attempting to) decrypting it, which is a massive undertaking and not undertaken lightly.


If you want to be anonymous do so in plain sight....I have always maintained that if the government is tracking me they are either stupid, lazy or have run out of meaningful things to do.

 

[hotwheels]

Originally Posted By: Doog
Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
Originally Posted By: hotwheels
Using Tor or Tails and similar privacy tools doesn't make anyone any more a blackhat than shooting a hunting rifle makes someone necessarily a poacher.

hotwheels


Sadly: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/...eeps-your-data/

Police states increase the necessity for things like Tor, though. And it should not be minimized that the NAS is retaining the data; not (attempting to) decrypting it, which is a massive undertaking and not undertaken lightly.


If you want to be anonymous do so in plain sight....I have always maintained that if the government is tracking me they are either stupid, lazy or have run out of meaningful things to do.


It's more about being able to do thinks like banking, Ebay and PayPal safely on the fly through public internet access without opening the door to someone syphoning your data. For example, when my home computer broke, I went to Kinko's, rented a PC and ran Tails off a USB stick to do some online business safely.

hotwheels

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: hotwheels
It's more about being able to do thinks like banking, Ebay and PayPal safely on the fly through public internet access without opening the door to someone syphoning your data.


Having your data encrypted by using a https:// connection (which BITOG, for example, shamefully does not use) offers you darn-near the same data protection *at a public LAN* that Tor gives you: Your data is already encrypted leaving your computer on its way to the (public) router. Tor's purpose is to bounce your data around so much and so far away that a government who'd like to intercept or decrypt that data will find it prohibitive to do so.

 

[KevGuy]

Let me get this straight.

You can run Tor, setup a new email address with say gmail, email some nasty note to a high ranking political official and they will have a hard time finding where it came from?

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: KevGuy
Let me get this straight.

You can run Tor, setup a new email address with say gmail, email some nasty note to a high ranking political official and they will have a hard time finding where it came from?


I am not sure how easy it would be to set up a Gmail address from Tor; as Gmail might not like being set up and logged into from such a disparate array of IP addresses from all over the world, and may give you a hard time over that (perhaps requiring a backup "security" email address or even mobile phone number). I could be wrong, though! I do know that there are web sites that provide disposable email addresses, too. EDIT: Google:
disposable anonymous email account
... and you'll have all the options you'll need.

There are much, much more nefarious purposes for which people use Tor. Sending nasty emails is among the more innocent and harmless of them.

For what it's worth, I also know that your nasty note will never make it to the eyes of the political official at whom it is aimed; and even if it did, they are not the types to be bothered by it. Something like this is a waste of, and a detriment to, your own time.