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Comment by aw3c2 | Hacker News Reader

Just a reminder that https://www.torproject.org offers a free and open-source unzip-and-run Firefox to use a anonymizing network run mostly by volunteers.

Using Tor to anonymously and privately educate yourself about embarrassing or potentially ostracized problems with yourself is a great use of it. Just remember that you should not ever enter any identifying information while using it.

Tor is more than fast enough for every day browsing, heck I use it to watch Youtube without major problems. I also use it to read the news, find recipes or lyrics (or similarly shady web circles) etc.

If the other side does not need to know who you are and does not have to synchronize that information into a vast tracking/advertising network, why should you willingly submit it?

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Isn't it ironic that to check your symptoms you have you use the same technology that you buy your cocaine with?

That's more tragic but I know what you mean.

"It has been said that capitalism is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time" (paraphrasing a speech Churchill gave about democracy).

If I download Tor I'll end up on one of the governments' lists. Is there a way to download it anonymously :-)

You can use GetTor[1] to download it via email. If you send an email to gettor@torproject.org with the body content `windows`, `linux` or `osx`, they send you a reply with a download link to Dropbox.

Then you need to verify the integrity using information they provide on their site.

[1] https://www.torproject.org/projects/gettor.html

Perhaps, but it might be hard to use Tor without said government knowing that you're using Tor. If someone can see your IP connecting to torproject's IP, they can surely also see your IP connecting to a known entry node.

On the other hand, it irks me that people should have to be afraid of wanting privacy. For my own part, I use Tor partly as "civil obstinacy" – if we do not exercise a right, we risk losing it. I feel it's wrong to target someone simply for using Tor / wanting privacy, and I think it should ideally be considered more normal.

That's one more reason to also convince your coworkers, acquaintances, friends etc. to download and try it, even if you know they probably won't need it :) The longer the lists, the harder it will be for anyone to be singled out from those lists and the lesser information the fact that we're on them will provide.

...the best place to hide is in a crowd, and the bigger the crowd the better :)

You're already on the lists.

If you don't use Tor, you're on the list and they've got ready access to your browsing data and metadata.

If you do use Tor, you're only on the list, and their workfactor for accessing your data and metadata is far higher.

Plus you're providing more cover for those who have strongly urgent needs for similar levels of protection.

You just talked to me. I run a Tor node so you are suspicious by acquaintance. Also you mentioned the selectors "government list", "anonymity" and "Tor". There is nothing to lose by downloading Tor now.

Why won't any browser's Incognito/InPrivate/Porn mode be enough? You need to prevent associating search queries with your logged in social accounts, Tor is kinda overkill for that.

There are a lot of ways that you can still be easily tracked in incognito mode such as browser fingerprints, supercookies, and WebRTC to name a few.

> You need to prevent associating search queries with your logged in social accounts

Every 3rd party HTTP request can already be used to track you -- being logged into a social account just makes the tracking way easier for them.

The prominent example to trigger a 3rd party request is the 1px GIF. Incognito mode won’t help you in this case.

IP tracking, browser fingerprinting, "supercookies", canvas fingerprinting, and other hacks are still a thing.

http://www.browserleaks.com/canvas http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27310/super-cookie https://panopticlick.eff.org/

My biggest single problem using Tor is that far too many sites either block exit nodes outright or subject them to (frankly, understandable) increased levels of scruitany.

I use and run a Tor proxy (_not_ an exit node, mind), but notably Craigslist tends to block pretty much _all_ Tor traffic, and sites employing Cloudflare's DDoS protection present a Javascript-only CAPTCHA. Given that one of my primary Tor browsers is a console-only browser without JS support, that does little for me.

Google despite other problems (below) actually Does The Right Thing and presents an image which I can fetch and verify, though many of the graphics are exceptionally difficult to interpret.

I've documented my own other hassles accessing Google via Tor (G+, Gmail, etc.) in "How to kill your Google account: Access it via Tor":

https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/2w618r/how_to_...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9060922

(The problems were compounded by Google's account recovery and verification procedures, though I ultimately did recover control thanks in no small part to intercession by Google's Yontan Zunger, for which I remain grateful).

Other options include the /etc/hosts file mentioned above (I've extended my own set with 62,000+ entries from a set of blockfiles used by the uMatrix Chrome extension). There's also Privoxy (though supporting _both_ Tor and non-Tor variants might be useful), and various browser extensions including Ghostery, Privacy Badger, AdBlock+, uMatrix, ScriptSave/NoScript, etc.

It's getting more than slightly tedious and is eroding trust in the Web generally.

The other area of significant interest is seeing work toward reputation systems which are compatible with Tor use. There are two I'm aware of, FAUST and "Fair Anonymity", though I've seen little discussion or adoption of these anywhere.

FAUST: https://gnunet.org/node/1704

"Fair Anonymity for the Tor Network" http://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.4707v1.pdf

Briefly discussed here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/30gszt/the_bac...

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