Re: [tor-talk] How does Tor help abuse victims?

["Sebastian G. <bastik.tor>" <bastik.tor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mimir:
> Tor can provide anonymity, including location anonymity, for victims of
> offline abuse, who have perhaps relocated for protection. Even for
> victims of online abuse, Tor can help protect against doxing.

I hadn't imagined that victims keep in contact with their abusers or
have their communication data exposed to their abusers.

01.10.2014, 19:49 Derric Atzrott:
>> I appear to lack imagination on how Tor helps abuse victims. Since some
>> of you are involved with some organizations working in that field, I
>> hope you give some insight.
>>
>> Personally I see no benefit in using Tor from the point of view of an
>> abuse victim. Beside the properties why anyone could use Tor.
>>
>> Quite the opposite, the abuser seems to gain more by using Tor, if
>> he/she (mostly he) is anonymous in the first place.
> 
> I know of at least one use case that I have personally seen.
> 
> A lot of abuse victims have never told anyone or have told very few
> folks that they are victims of abuse.  It's one of those things that
> people just don't feel comfortable talking about, and for a good
> reason, as abuse victims are often stigmatised by our society and
> there is a great deal of victim blaming that happens. [break]

Unfortunately that appears to be true in some cases, for whatever amount
of 'some'.

> There exists
> online a number of websites where victims of abuse can privately
> get together to discuss their past or current abuse and find ways
> to either get out of the situation or move on with life.

I see that this holds a higher risk of being exposed than just visiting
a website dealing with abuse.

> These sorts of things are a godsend for such people.

Indeed, I think it is.

Up to this point there is nothing I would have not claimed to be Tor not
being useful for, it's just that I'd recommend people to look up or
discuss their medical conditions for the same reasons.

> Another use-case would be the anonymous reporting of abusers.  In
> this case someone who is not the abuse victim, but knows of the
> abuse can report it without fearing reprisal from the abuser.  This
> is the same sort of logic that led to anonymous tip lines for police
> stations.

That is something I had not imagined for abuse cases. I'm familiar with
this being useful for dissidents or leaking of documents about war
crimes, environmental issues, corruption and such things.

> Thank you,
> Derric Atzrott
> 

Thank you both. To avoid overloading tor-talk, I consider myself
satisfied with the replies I got (because I am), if however others want
to add something, because it is good to have success stories of Tor on
tor-talk, then please add what you think.

Regards,
Sebastian G. bastik
-- 
tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe or change other settings go to
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk