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I'm curious how you reason about something that you say is used mostly for crime. Especially when there are other options for anonymity? Is there anything which

I'm curious how you reason about something that you say is used mostly for crime. Especially when there are other options for anonymity? Is there anything which can move the scale the other way, or is the fact that it's a human right in your opinion always going to win?

agf 5y ago
What are the other options for anonymity that don't provide the same cover for criminal activity?
- rsync 5y ago
  One option that I have theorized in the past is to simply run the tor network at a very low bandwidth per connection. As in, 28.8K or 56K or so ... This would force tor into being a text only communications channel which would obviate many of the most egregious illegal use-cases. You'd lose nothing with regard to freedom of speech and thought and communication. For instance, you can publish, and consume, a site like HN without any issues on 56K.
  - INTPenis 5y ago
    I like that idea. It's so simple but it would totally get the job done. Of course this would have to be a throttling per connection so 100 HTTPS API calls don't congest a relay node. But I don't see it working in reality because there is the argument that you might need to share leaks anonymously and that would take days.
edrxty 5y ago
Crime is subjective, hence every country on earth having different laws. I'm guessing but I imagine the vast majority of the crime is just drug sales which is becoming less and less criminal as society awakens to the realities of the underlying problems that cause drug use and the facts about its relative danger.
- andrepd 5y ago
  I think the far more serious crime in tor is child pornography.
INTPenis 5y ago
First of all anything that is widely adopted will be used for crime. That's just human nature. Tor is widely adopted right now but there have been alternatives like Freenet for example. So the choice is either anonymity and crime, or no anonymity at all. And crime won't go away, it just won't be able to use an anonymous channel for communications. And it's not like criminals are getting away with it by being anonymous either. If you go on tor to commit crimes then you will be hunted down by the international police. And if you commit heinous crimes against children then you will find no refuge. That's not a good life to live. Odds are you will end up in prison sooner or later.

agf 5y ago

What are the other options for anonymity that don't provide the same cover for criminal activity?

rsync 5y ago
One option that I have theorized in the past is to simply run the tor network at a very low bandwidth per connection. As in, 28.8K or 56K or so ... This would force tor into being a text only communications channel which would obviate many of the most egregious illegal use-cases. You'd lose nothing with regard to freedom of speech and thought and communication. For instance, you can publish, and consume, a site like HN without any issues on 56K.
- INTPenis 5y ago
  I like that idea. It's so simple but it would totally get the job done. Of course this would have to be a throttling per connection so 100 HTTPS API calls don't congest a relay node. But I don't see it working in reality because there is the argument that you might need to share leaks anonymously and that would take days.

edrxty 5y ago

Crime is subjective, hence every country on earth having different laws. I'm guessing but I imagine the vast majority of the crime is just drug sales which is becoming less and less criminal as society awakens to the realities of the underlying problems that cause drug use and the facts about its relative danger.

andrepd 5y ago
I think the far more serious crime in tor is child pornography.

INTPenis 5y ago

First of all anything that is widely adopted will be used for crime. That's just human nature. Tor is widely adopted right now but there have been alternatives like Freenet for example. So the choice is either anonymity and crime, or no anonymity at all. And crime won't go away, it just won't be able to use an anonymous channel for communications. And it's not like criminals are getting away with it by being anonymous either. If you go on tor to commit crimes then you will be hunted down by the international police. And if you commit heinous crimes against children then you will find no refuge. That's not a good life to live. Odds are you will end up in prison sooner or later.