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As I understand it, part of the risk is proving that you didn't perform the illegal act, and that an investigation itself can be damaging (loss of equipment/pub

As I understand it, part of the risk is proving that you didn't perform the illegal act, and that an investigation itself can be damaging (loss of equipment/public reporting that you are being investigated for being involved in illegal behaviour). If you maintain a strict separation between your traffic/equipment and the exit node, this may be less of a risk, but is subject to the laws of your jurisdiction. > In the USA, there have been no equipment seizures due to Tor exits, but there have been phone calls and visits. In other countries, people have had all their home computing equipment seized for running an exit from their home internet connection. https://blog.torproject.org/tips-running-exit-node https://blog.torproject.org/tips-running-exit-node > Jan Bultmann and David Robinson, a married couple from Seattle and well-known privacy activists in that city, were awakened early one morning last month by police with a search warrant for their home. The detectives from the Seattle Police Department demanded passwords to access the couple's computers, saying they were investigating child abuse imagery [...] The couple consented to the search and gave their passwords to police, who found no child abuse imagery, didn't seize any equipment, and made no arrests. https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/04/07/couple-hosting-tor-exit-node-raided-by-cops-investigating-child-abuse/ https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/04/07/couple-hosting-t... > The operator of a Tor [exit node] used by someone to download a pornographic image of a minor has been given a three-month suspended prison sentence by an Austrian court for abetting access to pornographic images of minors [but chats show that he was aware of this use and did not disapprove, so this is not necessarily a general ruling] https://www.pcworld.com/article/2452320/tor-exit-node-operator-convicted-of-abetting-spread-of-child-porn.html https://www.pcworld.com/article/2452320/tor-exit-node-operat...

burtonator 7y ago
> that an investigation itself can be damaging This is the main part. It's extrajudicial punishment. TONS of governments engage in this behavior. This is why MJ as illegal for so long. It allowed the US to imprison 1M more minorities since the 80s.
- notafraudster 7y ago
  I agree with the principle of your point re: marijuana in specific -- it was often used as a way to stack charges, and especially in a racialized way. But I'm not sure it applies here. Clearly if the US is investigating a serious computer crime that came from your server, they can't take it on your say-so that it actually came from somewhere else. They need to be able to investigate. And typically for forensic reasons that's going to involve an infrastructure seizure. Now, the failure to return infrastructure over a long period of time is more extrajudicial punishment, and they do that too sometimes. Lots of people haven't gotten laptops back for years via this.
  - tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
    Publicizing unproven charges, and allowing "mugshot extortion"-style web sites to operate, is a large part of this. In many other countries, crime reporting has to happen in an anonymized way until conviction.

burtonator 7y ago

> that an investigation itself can be damaging This is the main part. It's extrajudicial punishment. TONS of governments engage in this behavior. This is why MJ as illegal for so long. It allowed the US to imprison 1M more minorities since the 80s.

notafraudster 7y ago
I agree with the principle of your point re: marijuana in specific -- it was often used as a way to stack charges, and especially in a racialized way. But I'm not sure it applies here. Clearly if the US is investigating a serious computer crime that came from your server, they can't take it on your say-so that it actually came from somewhere else. They need to be able to investigate. And typically for forensic reasons that's going to involve an infrastructure seizure. Now, the failure to return infrastructure over a long period of time is more extrajudicial punishment, and they do that too sometimes. Lots of people haven't gotten laptops back for years via this.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 7y ago
  Publicizing unproven charges, and allowing "mugshot extortion"-style web sites to operate, is a large part of this. In many other countries, crime reporting has to happen in an anonymized way until conviction.