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Is it prohibited to visit those websites? I once was interested to understand the way radicals think, to read about their arguments, so I spent some time hangin

Is it prohibited to visit those websites? I once was interested to understand the way radicals think, to read about their arguments, so I spent some time hanging around some radical websites.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
To quote a Dartmouth history professor who taught a class on the subject: "if you don't get randomly selected for a search on your next flight you aren't doing your homework" It's not prohibited but they notice and subject you to harassment by the system at every action with every part of the system that is integrated with their database.
- q1w2 5y ago
  This seems like hyperbole.
lrvick 5y ago
I was visited by the FBI for doing security research that made them at least pretend to assume I was a blackhat they wanted to take down. Use Tor browser if you are going to research anything a criminal might regardless of pure motives. If you so much as want to research lock picking, use Tor. ISP traffic logs can and will be twisted against you in a court of law.
- throaway46546 5y ago
  I openly participate in locksport communities and I haven't had any visits from the FBI.
  - comboy 5y ago
    I'm fairly confident that those agencies use context in an automated manner to get any meaningful results. So "keyword" (could be a word, domain or some other pattern) X may trigger only if Y and Z was already triggered. And some keyword A may only trigger if B was NOT present. This way you can distinguish doctors, reporters or people studying history or chemistry from those who plan something. Or e.g. ML applied to patterns over time. Globally. And yes I do not like it at all, HN is full of people that may likely research some kind of bomb, religion or whatever else out of pure curiosity, but since there are not many such people it can be problem in court one day. Mix in some Snowden, your hardware stack, gag orders and the fact that we have more laws that anybody can read and you may feel like watching some stupid memes.
  - SturgeonsLaw 5y ago
    OPSEC is about lowering the probability of things going sideways, there are no guarantees either way

Is it prohibited to visit those websites? I once was interested to understand the way radicals think, to read about their arguments, so I spent some time hanging around some radical websites.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago

To quote a Dartmouth history professor who taught a class on the subject: "if you don't get randomly selected for a search on your next flight you aren't doing your homework" It's not prohibited but they notice and subject you to harassment by the system at every action with every part of the system that is integrated with their database.

q1w2 5y ago
This seems like hyperbole.

lrvick 5y ago

I was visited by the FBI for doing security research that made them at least pretend to assume I was a blackhat they wanted to take down. Use Tor browser if you are going to research anything a criminal might regardless of pure motives. If you so much as want to research lock picking, use Tor. ISP traffic logs can and will be twisted against you in a court of law.

throaway46546 5y ago
I openly participate in locksport communities and I haven't had any visits from the FBI.
- comboy 5y ago
  I'm fairly confident that those agencies use context in an automated manner to get any meaningful results. So "keyword" (could be a word, domain or some other pattern) X may trigger only if Y and Z was already triggered. And some keyword A may only trigger if B was NOT present. This way you can distinguish doctors, reporters or people studying history or chemistry from those who plan something. Or e.g. ML applied to patterns over time. Globally. And yes I do not like it at all, HN is full of people that may likely research some kind of bomb, religion or whatever else out of pure curiosity, but since there are not many such people it can be problem in court one day. Mix in some Snowden, your hardware stack, gag orders and the fact that we have more laws that anybody can read and you may feel like watching some stupid memes.
- SturgeonsLaw 5y ago
  OPSEC is about lowering the probability of things going sideways, there are no guarantees either way