Re: tor with OpenDNS as default DNS, using Firefox+FoxyProxy

[Andrew Lewman <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:42:56 -0700 (PDT)
Tripple Moon <tripple.moon@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> By "personally chosen domains" i mean, to be exact, domains that
> serve advertising. IMHO, having access to adverts is not part of the
> info a user actually is searching for in its normal browsing work.
> (exceptions are far less as the majority of regular-usage) IMHO by
> blocking these domains the tor-network will speedup considerably
> because there won't be need to transfer "that garbage" :)

For the same reason I don't use a 3rd party blacklist for spam
filtering, I don't want my traffic filtered by a tor exit node.  If you
do, great, but don't force it on everyone else.  

If my browser is told to ask for google-analytics.com, and your node
blocks it by policy, my tor client will find a new exit node that
allows it.  If you block the access to google-analytics.com after Tor
(such as filtering proxy or blocklist program via IP ranges) then
that's a fine way to get your exit node listed as a "bad exit".  I
suspect traffic from advertising networks is a pittance in comparison
to the peer to peer traffic/bulk data transfer currently overloading
the tor network.  Tor isn't trying to defeat any one business model,
but provide users the ability to control their information to some
degree when using the Internet.  

I use tor to protect my privacy and anonymity online.  I want it
to do nothing more.  Let me decide, as the user, what gets
requested, denied, or allowed into my Internet experience.  It's the
user's choice if they want to subscribe to a list of what one person (or
organization) thinks is good or bad on the Internet, but most don't want
it pushed on them without a choice.

I use a firefox extension called Request Policy to not grab different
domains than the one I'm requesting, many of which happen to be
click-tracking and advertising networks.  For now, coupled with
torbutton, this is all I need.  

If there was a way to set the "evil bit" in TCP, I'd like the option to
honor it or not; regardless of how many people tell me honoring it
would solve all crimes, cure diseases, and create world peace.

-- 
Andrew Lewman
The Tor Project
pgp 0x31B0974B

Website: https://torproject.org/
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