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Re: [tor-talk] Thoughts on Tor-based social networking?



On 10/28/2013 7:30 AM, Yawning Angel wrote:
On Sun, 27 Oct 2013 20:17:30 -0400
Bill Cox <waywardgeek@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks for the links, Roger.  On the first thread, I agree with you
that exit nodes should not be expected to analyze the unencrypted
traffic to determine if behavior is acceptable.  That's what NSA exit
nodes are for :-p  However, OpenDNS style filtering should be
acceptable, IMO.  It'd be a simple set of flags that each exit node
says it supports or blocks, so it could be fairly simple for Tor
users to route to an acceptable exit node.  I would want the same
flags for relay nodes as well.  That would block some sites people
don't want to redirect, such as porn sites
- not that I have issues with porn.  I just don't want to waste my
bandwidth routing it.
I'm really confused how you expect "middle relays" to implement this
sort of filtering, given that *by design*, the middle relays are
ignorant of the destination of the traffic.

One way would be for relay nodes to make their preferences known in the database where all the node data is provided. Clients would simply be expected to take the wishes of the relay nodes into account while determining a Tor path that is valid for a given IP address. That's easily defeated, but then again so is any other scheme of filtering. Hopefully most clients would work according to the spec. If the client needs to access an IP address that isn't supported by the current path, it could form a new path.

Oh I know, we could add a bit in the cell header that signifies if the
cell is carrying "objectionable or evil" payload a la (RFC 3514), and
it will be up for compliant implementations to tag their packets when
they're watching pron, so that relays can filter/censor traffic as
appropriate.  There's probably fairly "interesting" anonymity
implications when certain relays won't ever be eligible to be part of
your path as well.

(As a side note how do you know that they were watching pron through
your exit?  It's usually considered a bad idea for various reasons to
look at user traffic.)

Regards,




I agree that it's a bad idea to look at the actual traffic. I suspect that the majority of traffic I saw on my node would not make it through my own OpenDNS filter I use at home, so just filter based on destination.

However, none of this filtering stuff is very interesting to me. I'm more interested in the idea of building a Ripple style social network/web of trust between secret identities, and using that network to promote freedom.

Bill
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