(FWD) Re: Why should I run Tor?

[Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu>]

----- Forwarded message from owner-or-dev@freehaven.net -----

Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 00:33:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Anna Shubina <ashubina@tahoe.cs.dartmouth.edu>
To: or-dev@freehaven.net
Subject: Re: Why should I run Tor?

Nice writeup. Now we have something to show people who ask 'why?'

Maybe I missed this somewhere, but I personally would run tor also for the
following important reason: trust.

1) It is harder for a single node to do something malicious than in the
   case with single-hop proxies.

You probably cannot include 2), but still:

2) Your personal reputation and the reputation of your project -
   something that most single-hop proxies do not have. (By the way, I would
   still trust JAP, because I realise they did their best to warn their
   users, but how many other people realise this?)

   For most single-hop proxies it is virtually impossible to find out who
   they are, who they are associated with and what they are engaged in. Tor
   has your name on it, and I trust you and hope you did not accidentally
   associate with anybody particularly bad.

Maybe more comments to come... I keep feeling that "track and sell your
behaviour" does not cover everything a malicious website can do to your
information. At the very least, there is also the option to sue you
on murky legal grounds (see the DirecTV story - this time, purchase
records, next time, this could be the logs of a website), or even to
attack your computer.

On Tue, 11 May 2004, Roger Dingledine wrote:

> http://freehaven.net/tor/doc/tor-doc.html#why
>
> Have I missed any important points? Have I mangled the phrasing of any
> important points? Have I left out any categories of users? Why do *you*
> run Tor?
>
> (Wow, a real thread. :)
>
> Thanks,
> --Roger
>


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