[tor-talk] NSA, Tempora, PRISM And Company always know who is behind Tor?

[Roger Dingledine]

On Thu, Jul 18, 2013 at 09:31:21PM -0300, Juan Garofalo wrote:
> >> They know the real IP of every Tor user every time they use Tor?
> >
> >Probably not.
> 
>         Why not? Don't they monitor enough internet traffic to know what the users are doing? Don't all ISPs either work for  the NSA, or let the NSA monitor all their traffic? 

Again, probably not?

They for sure do not have a deal with every ISP.

The question is whether they have enough deals with the *right* ISPs to
be able to see enough Tor traffic to have a good chance of breaking some
Tor circuits.

And that has to do with Internet topologies, politics and business deals,
the location of Tor relays relative to these, the paths between Tor
clients and relays, and the paths between Tor relays and your destination.

I think it's clear that these parameters produce bad news for some Tor
users, against an adversary this large. But not bad news for "every Tor
user every time they use Tor."

--Roger