[tor-talk] Fwd: IP Banned for running a non-exit relay from home?

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 9/30/2014 7:27 PM, stn wrote:
> some weeks ago i asked daniel why he blocked tor traffic.  he sited SSH brute force, smtp and other abuse issues.  he's a sysadmin so i can understand the need to protect his networks.
>
> thanks for brining in a higher resolution view here.
>
> hope your approach works or at least opens the door to communication with him.
> he maintains a tor  list updated every 30 minutes so maybe addressing his specific concerns can help ?  i'd hate to see others blindly block from his lists.
>
> he was polite and answered some basic networking questions about netBSD for me and that was about it.  he didn't answer me immediately either.  so straight to /dev/null ... not in my case at least.
>
> he also doens't like anonymous proxies generally by the notice his site gives when attempting  to connect with tor if i've read it correctly.
Since a lot of sites need / want to make money off of advertising, it 
will surprise me if more sites don't start blocking Tor - for economic 
reasons.
Probably "targeted advertising" - where the more info they have about 
you, your location, individual browser & system characteristics - the 
more that ad companies are willing to pay.
I imagine that advertisers don't consider TBB users as very "targeted" 
(where we're all *supposed* to look like each other) & they have no IPa, 
no geo location - not much of anything, really.

Some site owners are also "sharing" their registered users info, 
according to articles by various outlets - Wall St. Journal, being one.  
Or, they just let the tracking / data gather companies put trackers on 
their site, then allow trackers to gather the data.

Sometimes a site may share only meta data & according to several 
articles I've seen, including direct comments or quotes from the "data 
mining" companies employees, they eventually want to be able to tie a 
person's browser / computer online with a real name & physical address & 
email address, along w/ any other interests, associations they can dig 
up.  I DON'T know what this Daniel guy is / isn't doing - maybe nothing 
"wrong."
But, you can apply the general data gathering, ad delivering, revenue 
generating process to other sites & see why some of them don't want any 
anonymous users - Tor or other.

Tor / TBB doesn't exactly lend itself to that business model.  Maybe 
some have heard, gathering personal data on internet users is now big 
business.  No?
Tor thwarts that objective.  The trackers (who pay many site owners) 
say, "We don't need no stinking Tor Browsers."
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> On Sep 30, 2014, at 7:07 PM, Michael Wolf wrote:
>
>> On 9/30/2014 2:26 AM, Virgil Griffith wrote:
>>> Perhaps weirdly, this fellow does seem to know what he is doing.
>>>
>>> On page, https://www.dan.me.uk/dnsbl
>>>
>>> He explicitly offers a different list for blocking just exits.  The
>>> only thing I can think of is to email a request that he block just
>>> exists instead of overblocking all Tor nodes.
>>>
>>> -V
>>>
>> I sent a polite email to this individual several months ago regarding
>> this exact issue.  The email was ignored.  The following was sent the
>> email address listed on his site (me AT dan DOT me DOT uk):
>>
>>
>>> Dear Daniel,
>>>
>>> I noticed that your site blocks non-exit tor relays -- for example, my
>>> own IP of 107.197.196.79.  As a fellow admin, I respect your right to
>>> block anything you want.  However, I kindly request that you limit your
>>> block to only exit relays.  There are may people around the world who
>>> run middle relays from home, and it seems to serve no purpose to punish
>>> them for trying to help other people
>>>
>>> Along those lines, if you would consider adding some warning or
>>> explanation to the .tor.dan.me.uk blacklist (or even mentioning that it
>>> shouldn't be used as a blacklist), it would be much appreciated.
>>> Well-intentioned users around the world are being blocked from various
>>> forums, retail sites, and government websites, despite never having
>>> broken any rules.
>>>
>>> Thank you for your time.
>>>
>>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Michael Wolf
>> Perhaps enough similar emails will persuade him?  Or perhaps he
>> /dev/null's anything with "tor" in it?
>>
>> -- Mike
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