Re: [tor-talk] ***[SPAM]*** Re: Tor and Financial Transparency

[BM-2D9WhbG2VeKsLCsGBTPLGwDLQyPizSqS85@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks to Andrew & others for their responses. I inquired knowing the
norms of research funding in computer science, that various other
government agencies have also funded Tor in the past, that Tor originated
with Navy input, that there are easier ways for nonprofits to hide DoD
funding (like the subsidiary corporation reported on the Tor Project's IRS
990s, for example), and so on.

But I asked because this single grant for $876K is a significant portion
of Tor's operating budget, and about a third of the Tor Project's total
operating income in 2012. It's also far more than the the sum of salaries
and travel funding disclosed in its 2012 IRS 990 forms. So it's not a
trivial amount of money and Tor is not a computer science professor at a
university. Also note that I didn't ask about any of the other funding Tor
receives from the U.S. government, which is more accurately disclosed on
the website most people read.

But as someone who has donated lots of bandwidth and other resources over
the past decade or so to the Tor Project, I'm interested to know whether
my contributions to the project might be going into the coffers of an
organization for which a third of its funding (and presumably, its
activities) exist essentially as a black hole. Not knowing where this
funding goes makes it harder to know where my money or bandwidth or code
contributions go.

Hopefully you can understand why someone might wonder in good faith why a
third of the Tor Project's 2012 funding appears to be disclosed only in
PDFs that very few people bother to read (let alone understand), or why
the Tor Project hasn't updated its website to note that its largest
funder--from the tax documents, at least--is a U.S. Navy grant focused on
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance." I accept Andrew's
explanation at face value, but I also think it's fair to say that it's a
significant oversight.

Since Tor itself is used to evade censorship and surveillance and the only
available information about this funding mentions "Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance" in conjunction with the U.S. Navy, I
hope others on the list understand why someone might ask in good faith
what The Tor Project actually does with funding from this grant.

I hope that in the future, The Tor Project will consider accepting funding
from sources that it can speak to in greater detail and that don't come
with the same risk of undermining trust among volunteers and users.


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