[tor-talk] New Tool Keeps Censors in the Dark - mentions Tor.

Joe Btfsplk joebtfsplk at gmx.com
Mon Aug 8 21:44:00 UTC 2011


On 8/8/2011 8:16 AM, Jimmy Richardson wrote:
>
>
> On 8/8/2011 5:03 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>> On Mon, Aug 08, 2011 at 10:41:50AM +0800, Jimmy Richardson wrote:
>>
>>> Google AppEngine provides a platform which can be used to run your own
>>> proxy servers for free, Gtalk supports XMPP which can also be used to
>>> circumvent censorship.
>> Google actively cooperates with US authorities regardless of user's
>> geography, so using Google's infrastructure for anonymity is an 
>> oxymoron.
>
> I agree, but again, we were talking about anti-censorship, not 
> anonymity. Frankly people in China or Iran has much more to fear from 
> their own government than from US authorities.
> _______________________________________________
>
Jimmy, though you have some valid points, I think you missed my point 
entirely (possibly some other posters').

1.  I wasn't speaking about the US, or any particular country.  I was 
really thinking of more repressed countries.  And yes, in some of those, 
people would / might go to jail (or worse) if they were caught accessing 
or disseminating "subversive" info.

2.  If in a repressed country, one wants to access information / sites 
that is forbidden by the gov't, one better have ANONYMITY when accessing 
these.  There may be ways to get around sites (for instance) being 
blocked.  If so, one better have anonymity when doing so, or they may 
find themselves at the local police station.  IOW, if one is 
circumventing a gov'ts' censorship, they better have anonymity.  In 
those instances, censorship & anonymity are linked.  Often in the really 
repressed, dictatorship countries, people suspected of subversive 
behavior just "disappear."  It happens all the time.

Pure anti-censorship (or lifting censorship) assumes that bans on 
information will be lifted.  That still doesn't mean a gov't isn't 
watching / logging who's accessing what info, to be used later.


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