[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]

Re: [tor-talk] New Tool Keeps Censors in the Dark - mentions Tor.





On 8/8/2011 12:48 AM, Joe Btfsplk wrote:
On 8/6/2011 10:56 AM, Jimmy Richardson wrote:
This won't work well seeing Google is already kicked out of China.
Exactly.
You lost me at "If google were to..." Google & privacy is the definition of an oxymoron. They're way down the list of organizations many users would want having any role in some anonymity endeavor.


This is not about privacy, it's about anti-censorship, and Google is a good resource in terms of anti-censorship.
How so - other than not wanting their corporation to be censored? Do they have a record of refusing to give data to gov'ts?

Google AppEngine provides a platform which can be used to run your own proxy servers for free, Gtalk supports XMPP which can also be used to circumvent censorship.


Privacy, anonymity & anti-censorship seem interrelated. Anonymity implies privacy.

I don't think there is a direct relationship, the two concerns (privacy/anonymity and anti-censorship) can be separated. They only come together in some use cases, for example if you want to speak up against the censoring government; but in a lot of other use cases they are unrelated, for example if the user just want to view a video totally unrelated to politics on youtube.

Google is in business to make money, not promote anti-censorship or free speech. Censoring them cuts into their earnings, so yes, they are against censorship - * involving their corporation. *

True, but I don't see anything wrong with this, we can leverage their desire for profit for other purposes.

IMO, if I lived in a country where my life or possible imprisonment depended on internet anonymity / security, I wouldn't trust Google to keep me safe. I'm quite sure other entities eventually could provide some service / method to access banned sites, w/o $ being the main objective.

I think we may have different assumptions here. You're assuming the user may face imprisonment if they break the censorship and access blocked content, my assumption is the censoring government will not bother to catch people who circumvent censorship as long as they don't actively go against the government.


Forget Telex or Tor for the moment. Eventually, individuals or groups have always found an "underground" way around censorship (if they wanted to) during wars, etc., sans the internet. The answer to avoid censorship may not involve the internet at all.

Yes, but internet has some huge advantage over other methods, that is why censoring governments are afraid of it.

Ultimately, passing or accessing censored or what gov'ts consider subversive info * through any ISP,* that keeps records & is legally bound to cooperate w/ govt's doesn't seem like the best idea. I wouldn't go to the NSA's office to have a secret phone conversation. Just my opinion.

No, it's certainly not the best idea, but life doesn't always give you the best tool for the job, sometimes you just have to use whatever is handy.

_______________________________________________
tor-talk mailing list
tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk

_______________________________________________
tor-talk mailing list
tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk