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What chance does a ragtag team of people from various backgrounds working part time on a open source project have against a determined enemy with billions in fu

What chance does a ragtag team of people from various backgrounds working part time on a open source project have against a determined enemy with billions in funding and hordes of PHDs working full time with single goal of violating privacy of netizens.

llamataboot 13y ago
A better chance than one would think from that phrasing, as there are a lot of highly motivated and intelligent people working on privacy tech.
- JabavuAdams 13y ago
  It doesn't matter. Protecting privacy is too big a goal. In the end, why does the NSA do what it does? To get specific, actionable intelligence. Everyone in the world's privacy is just collateral damage. But, turn that around. Protecting your privacy (never mind anyone else's) is too big a goal. It's too easily breached. Instead, think of what specific information you feel you need to keep private, and how you might do that. Of course, the goal of keeping specific, actionable information secret leads to the question of why you'd want to do that. A general desire for privacy doesn't mark you as one of the "bad guys". Having something specific to hide leads to questions of why? To what end? Should we be worried?
  - zxcdw 13y ago
    Thats why we all should keep as much privacy as possible, if not for the sake of feeling a need for it ourselves, but to help out those who feel so. It is easier for them to hide among the mass of encrypted traffic and privacy-aware activities rather than stand out there on their own, shining like a light bulb to the NSA and other adversaries. Boycott surveillance, encrypt everything.
  - chetanahuja 13y ago
    "Having something specific to hide leads to questions of why? To what end? Should we be worried?" Why do you close the doors when you go to the bathroom? What are you hiding? Should we be worried?
    - n09n 13y ago
      Because it's polite and it limits the diffusion of bad smells. If you really want to see my dick all you have to do is go on chatroulette. No need to follow me to the toilet. Unless you're interested in more than just looking.
      - chetanahuja 13y ago
        Point is not that you have an altruistic reason for wanting privacy for certain parts of your life (which I'm sure you do). The point is that once the very act of wanting privacy starts becoming suspicious, we've moved away from a free society towards the totalitarian end of the spectrum.
        n09n 13y ago
        And some of us are quite happy on that side of the spectrum.
gohrt 13y ago
That's entirely not the point. Even with 1000x the amount of funding, TOR would still be theoretically proven to be insecure. Only physicially secure hardware (including cables and routers) stands a chance against side-channel traffic analysis.

llamataboot 13y ago

A better chance than one would think from that phrasing, as there are a lot of highly motivated and intelligent people working on privacy tech.

JabavuAdams 13y ago
It doesn't matter. Protecting privacy is too big a goal. In the end, why does the NSA do what it does? To get specific, actionable intelligence. Everyone in the world's privacy is just collateral damage. But, turn that around. Protecting your privacy (never mind anyone else's) is too big a goal. It's too easily breached. Instead, think of what specific information you feel you need to keep private, and how you might do that. Of course, the goal of keeping specific, actionable information secret leads to the question of why you'd want to do that. A general desire for privacy doesn't mark you as one of the "bad guys". Having something specific to hide leads to questions of why? To what end? Should we be worried?
- zxcdw 13y ago
  Thats why we all should keep as much privacy as possible, if not for the sake of feeling a need for it ourselves, but to help out those who feel so. It is easier for them to hide among the mass of encrypted traffic and privacy-aware activities rather than stand out there on their own, shining like a light bulb to the NSA and other adversaries. Boycott surveillance, encrypt everything.
- chetanahuja 13y ago
  "Having something specific to hide leads to questions of why? To what end? Should we be worried?" Why do you close the doors when you go to the bathroom? What are you hiding? Should we be worried?
  - n09n 13y ago
    Because it's polite and it limits the diffusion of bad smells. If you really want to see my dick all you have to do is go on chatroulette. No need to follow me to the toilet. Unless you're interested in more than just looking.
    - chetanahuja 13y ago
      Point is not that you have an altruistic reason for wanting privacy for certain parts of your life (which I'm sure you do). The point is that once the very act of wanting privacy starts becoming suspicious, we've moved away from a free society towards the totalitarian end of the spectrum.
      - n09n 13y ago
        And some of us are quite happy on that side of the spectrum.

gohrt 13y ago

That's entirely not the point. Even with 1000x the amount of funding, TOR would still be theoretically proven to be insecure. Only physicially secure hardware (including cables and routers) stands a chance against side-channel traffic analysis.