[tor-relays] Close friend

[Rex Wolf]

On 17/08/2014 9:11 PM, IceFish ThreeTwo wrote:
> I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the Family option in torrc is
> used so that nodes administrated by the same person never make a
> circuit with each other, which somehow protects anonymity. Should my
> friend and I put each other's fingerprints in the Family field? Seems
> logical since we know each other and if the point of theFamily field
> is to protect anonymity. 

Hi IceFish,

The MyFamily option is what you've described--an option used so that
nodes administered by the same person / entity will only be used once in
any given circuit (other nodes from the same family will not be used in
the same circuit).

This isn't so much to protect your anonymity as a relay operator, but to
limit any one client's potential vulnerability. For example, if one
relay operator happens to control both the guard node and the exit node
in a circuit, they can correlate the timing of packets entering and
exiting the network, and determine both a person's identity and the
content of their traffic.

You and your friend may know each other, but unless you both administer
each other's nodes, I don't think you would need to use the MyFamily option.

 -Rex

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