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Under "Browsers" Tor browser is listed as an alternative to "You are the product". I'd like to take a shot at a quick counter-argument: 1. Tor gets money by d
by jancsika 9y ago
Under "Browsers" Tor browser is listed as an alternative to "You are the product".
I'd like to take a shot at a quick counter-argument:
1. Tor gets money by delivering a workable privacy overlay to organizations that fund it for such a purpose. The largest funder is the U.S. government.
2. To operate properly, Tor needs a relatively large anonymity pool.
3. The Tor service itself-- while still certainly useful (esp. its hidden services, even for purposes that don't require anonymity)-- doesn't generate a large enough anonymity pool.
4. Tor Browser Bundle adds to the anonymity pool by making the Tor service usable to a much wider audience of non-technical users.
5. To actually attract such users, Tor Browser Bundle must allow Javascript by default so that sites do not "appear broken" by non-technical users who don't understand the intricacies of a low latency privacy overlay.
6. The set of TBB users who view sites with Javascript on by default are subject to a wide variety of de-anonymization attacks which, while generally not trivial nor cheap, put them at greater risk than users who are not using Tor with a browser frontend.
7. Either the U.S. government funds Tor with the intent to use it with a browser frontend, or they fund it for use without a browser frontend. If they fund it in order to leverage the Tor service without needing the browser frontend, then congratulations! You-- the non-technical TBB user-- are the product.
What do you think?
- devrandomguy 9y agoWhen did Tor Browser start enabling JS by default? It was blocked by noscript by default for me, when I started using it years ago, and that was still the case the last time I installed a new workstation OS, earlier this year. I use TBB for about 20% of my browsing, a habit that I cultivated while traveling and working overseas. Now, with all the crazy identity politics going on at the major data companies, I think that anonymity is becoming much more important for the general public. Thank you for playing devil's advocate. The fact that the project is funded by the US govt is certainly concerning, no doubt about that. I can only hope that their motive is just to enable their own agents to operate online without being identified, profiled and social-graphed by the private sector.
- tscs37 9y agoThe Tor project has always been funded by the US Gov, probably since they started the entire project in the first place. They do have some interest in keeping it airtight.
- jancsika 9y ago> When did Tor Browser start enabling JS by default? It was blocked by noscript by default for me, when I started using it years ago, and that was still the case the last time I installed a new workstation OS, earlier this year. You sure about that? https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#TBBJavaScriptEnabled https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#TBBJavaScriptEna...