6 ms·
French PM rules out ban on public Wi-Fi and Tor
- dang 11y agoUrl changed from http://www.dailydot.com/politics/france-tor-wifi-pm-no-ban/ http://www.dailydot.com/politics/france-tor-wifi-pm-no-ban/, which points to this.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- peferron 11y agoWhy does this show that the modern democratic state is defunct?
- hartator 11y agoBecause they have seriously consider this before the backslash.
- Rexxar 11y agoThey never consider this. All the fuss was about a "wish list" collecting all propositions from police and gendarmerie. So yeah, at least one guy working for government though it was a good idea and ask for it. So what ?
- kkirsche 11y agoGood! This shouldn't be banned and is helpful for legitimate uses not just malicious.
- adrtessier 11y agoHow many people regularly use Tor for things other than stuff you want to truly keep private? When was the last time you fired up Tor just to browse the web? I think all of us that want things like Tor to exist need to start making sure we're users of Tor to do legitimate things on a regular basis. When people are asking for "privacy" on public wifi for basic web browsing, maybe we should be pointing them at the Tor Browser Bundle instead of a commercial VPN service, Hotspot Shield or the like. I think there is a lot of talk around Tor's legitimate uses, but I think a lot more of us should put our actions where our mouth is and make sure we use Tor on a regular basis. Tor has a lot of uses that aren't underscored by its team or the usual privacy message: 1. Tor's great at getting around firewalls and web filters. Have a bad ISP that proxies everything? Torify. Stuck in a school in which you can't view materials you need for research? Torify. 2. Tor is cheaper than coffee-shop/public Wifi VPNs and is likely fine* for browsing the internet privately (note I did not say anonymously, since you will likely log into services from the Tor exit that will give up your anonymity.) 3. Tor hidden services are an easy way to set up a very secure connection to a remote service; the anonymity is just an extra feature. Do you live with five roommates in a house connected to someone else's NAT box, and he/she won't give you admin access? Tor hidden services are great NAT traversal tools. Run sshd behind a hidden service and you can shell into your own computer from anywhere for free. The greater the critical mass of Tor exit IPs being used by legitimate people, also the less people will be inconvenienced by them places. I often use Tor to log in here to Hacker News, and I have to fill out captchas every now and then. If 10,000 people were using Tor to visit Hacker News, it's likely these would get easier or go away. If we want these tools to be legitimate, we have to make them legitimate, not just say "hey, there are legitimate uses for it!" Run the browser bundle. If you have extra resources, run a bridge or a relay; you can even run a middle relay from your house with likely no ill effect according to the EFF. If you really have power and are willing to deal with abuse requests, running an exit helps everyone. * Note I said likely fine because I wouldn't log into anything particularly sensitive from Tor. I personally believe a far greater proportion of the Tor exits are malicious to the network than the project wishes to believe, whether that means they are run by nation-state surveillance or people good at setting up transparent proxies.
- belorn 11y agoI personally use tor in my professional job as a sysadmin to get a "outside" look on a service. It provide a extra path which evades caches and similar issues.
- A_COMPUTER 11y agoIf you only fire up Tor when you want to do something secret, you're leaking information about yourself that could get you caught. A Harvard student who emailed a bomb threat got tracked down this way. Obviously I don't support one's right to email bomb threats, but the principle is the same, the investigation narrowed down to him because of the exact time his Internet connection connected to a Tor relay. So I second your call for us to run our own relays, full-time.
- zz1 11y agoI use Tor for regular use. Could you provide more detailed instructions for #3? I would like to consider setting up this option.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jug5 11y agoProof that France is less stupid than America.
- lbenes 11y agoMeanwhile the leading candidates from both US parties want to trample on our Fourth Amendment rights by weakening encryption and installing backdoors. "Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people." -Donald Trump[1] "You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, et cetera..." -Hillary Clinton[1] [1] https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151207/21225233018/two-leading-presidential-candidates-clinton-trump-both-mocked-free-speech-internet.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151207/21225233018/two-l...
- 7952 11y agoSomeone should build an encrypted cell phone into an assault rifle. They would never be able to ban that.
- briandear 11y agoYou're ok with 2nd Amendment violations but are concerned about the 4th? The Bill of Rights isn't a buffet.
- acchow 11y agoMore like disagrees with this interpretation of the 2nd amendment.
- A_COMPUTER 11y agoIf only crypto users were as vocal and organized as gun owners. We could call our organization the National Rijndael Association.
- paulddraper 11y agoLast I checked, people had been successful in banning "assault" rifles. I'm not aware of a time in the US where encryption was banned for the populace.
- mhurron 11y agoThe number of presidential candidates that look at the constitution as a hindrance is scary.