
French PM rules out ban on public Wi-Fi and Tor - tdurden
http://www.connexionfrance.com/Wifi-internet-ban-banned-17518-view-article.html
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kkirsche
Good! This shouldn't be banned and is helpful for legitimate uses not just
malicious.

~~~
adrtessier
How many people regularly use Tor for things other than stuff you want to
truly keep private? When was the last time you fired up Tor just to browse the
web?

I think all of us that want things like Tor to exist need to start making sure
we're users of Tor to do legitimate things on a regular basis. When people are
asking for "privacy" on public wifi for basic web browsing, maybe we should be
pointing them at the Tor Browser Bundle instead of a commercial VPN service,
Hotspot Shield or the like.

I think there is a lot of talk around Tor's legitimate uses, but I think a lot
more of us should put our actions where our mouth is and make sure we use Tor
on a regular basis. Tor has a lot of uses that aren't underscored by its team
or the usual privacy message:

1\. Tor's great at getting around firewalls and web filters. Have a bad ISP
that proxies everything? Torify. Stuck in a school in which you can't view
materials you need for research? Torify.

2\. Tor is cheaper than coffee-shop/public Wifi VPNs and is likely fine* for
browsing the internet _privately_ (note I did not say _anonymously_ , since
you will likely log into services from the Tor exit that will give up your
anonymity.)

3\. Tor hidden services are an easy way to set up a very secure connection to
a remote service; the anonymity is just an extra feature. Do you live with
five roommates in a house connected to someone else's NAT box, and he/she
won't give you admin access? Tor hidden services are great NAT traversal
tools. Run sshd behind a hidden service and you can shell into your own
computer from anywhere for free.

The greater the critical mass of Tor exit IPs being used by legitimate people,
also the less people will be inconvenienced by them places. I often use Tor to
log in here to Hacker News, and I have to fill out captchas every now and
then. If 10,000 people were using Tor to visit Hacker News, it's likely these
would get easier or go away.

If we want these tools to be legitimate, we have to make them legitimate, not
just say "hey, there are legitimate uses for it!" Run the browser bundle. If
you have extra resources, run a bridge or a relay; you can even run a middle
relay from your house with likely no ill effect according to the EFF. If you
really have power and are willing to deal with abuse requests, running an exit
helps everyone.

* Note I said _likely fine_ because I wouldn't log into anything particularly sensitive from Tor. I personally believe a far greater proportion of the Tor exits are malicious to the network than the project wishes to believe, whether that means they are run by nation-state surveillance or people good at setting up transparent proxies.

~~~
A_COMPUTER
If you only fire up Tor when you want to do something secret, you're leaking
information about yourself that could get you caught. A Harvard student who
emailed a bomb threat got tracked down this way. Obviously I don't support
one's right to email bomb threats, but the principle is the same, the
investigation narrowed down to him because of the exact time his Internet
connection connected to a Tor relay.

So I second your call for us to run our own relays, full-time.

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lbenes
Meanwhile the leading candidates from both US parties want to trample on our
Fourth Amendment rights by weakening encryption and installing backdoors.

"Somebody will say, 'Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are
foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people." -Donald Trump[1]

"You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of
speech, et cetera..." -Hillary Clinton[1]

[1]
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151207/21225233018/two-l...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151207/21225233018/two-
leading-presidential-candidates-clinton-trump-both-mocked-free-speech-
internet.shtml)

~~~
7952
Someone should build an encrypted cell phone into an assault rifle. They would
never be able to ban that.

~~~
briandear
You're ok with 2nd Amendment violations but are concerned about the 4th? The
Bill of Rights isn't a buffet.

~~~
acchow
More like disagrees with this interpretation of the 2nd amendment.

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dang
Url changed from [http://www.dailydot.com/politics/france-tor-wifi-pm-no-
ban/](http://www.dailydot.com/politics/france-tor-wifi-pm-no-ban/), which
points to this.

