[tor-bugs] #11406 [Tor Launcher]: UI for ExitNode country selection in tor-launcher

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Mon May 26 16:49:27 UTC 2014


#11406: UI for ExitNode country selection in tor-launcher
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
     Reporter:  mttp     |      Owner:  brade
         Type:           |     Status:  new
  enhancement            |  Milestone:
     Priority:  minor    |    Version:
    Component:  Tor      |   Keywords:  tbb-usability, tbb-helpdesk-
  Launcher               |  frequent
   Resolution:           |  Parent ID:
Actual Points:           |
       Points:           |
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------

Comment (by mttp):

 Replying to [comment:14 arma]:
 > Replying to [comment:11 lunar]:
 > > I don't think this is a good idea. Can we really encourage users to
 tweak the path selection algorithm? Maybe that's just elitism, but I'd
 rather leave such options hard to discover as we have good intuition that
 it skews anonymity…
 >
 > Actually, my main reason for not being a fan of making this easy is
 because of all the users who want to use Tor to get around geoip
 restrictions, and historically that has been associated with higher
 bandwidth load (hulu, bbc video, etc). "If you want a vpn to pretend
 you're in England, go use one."
 >
 > I think the 'skewing anonymity' part applies more to the people who
 _exclude_ certain countries because of various superstitions (or because
 of real genuine fears about those countries, but misunderstandings about
 Internet routing).
 >
 > That said, there are a growing number of services like banks, paypal,
 etc that really mess up your life if you show up from an unexpected
 country. But on the third hand, it's not clear to me that a little
 checkbox off to the side in tor launcher is going to by itself help enough
 of the users who are having these problems.
 >
 > Matt, what use cases did you have in mind here?


 Setting the country that Tor appears to be exiting from is a common help
 desk request. This is functionality that used to be available to users
 graphically through Vidalia but no longer is. Reintroducing this option
 into the UI would help make Tor Browser users less reliant on the help
 desk and more knowledgeable about how Tor works.

 Users think Tor can do this, they are right, but when they don't find a
 way to do this in Tor Browser's interface they go searching for a
 solution, not on our website, but on Google, which takes them to arbitrary
 blog/forum posts that say who knows what. By keeping the ExitNodes flag
 within Tor itself, but withholding an intuitive way to set this popular
 option, we are encouraging this dangerous workflow (dangerous because the
 bloggy magicians may tell users that they should set various other options
 that don't serve users).

 I do not know the reason that this functionality is so frequently
 requested, but the request is usually for setting one country as an exit
 ---requests for how to exclude countries are less frequent (and I don't
 think would be addressed in this feature anyway). My sense is that this
 feature would indeed often be used to circumvent GeoIP restrictions for
 video sites like YouTube, but it would also be used to post on location-
 specific forums such as nairaland.com or sportal.com.au.

 Forcing Tor Browser users into a headache-inducing workflow does not serve
 the users.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/11406#comment:16>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
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