Man Found Guilty of Child Porn, Because He Ran a Tor Exit Node::undefined
This is why I won’t do anything of the sort. With the increasingly authoritarian state that Amurica is turning into, I will tread very carefully. Including using VPN. I don’t know much about Tor and perhaps I should learn more but my understanding is the traffic is largely plain text and not encrypted. Please correct me if I am wrong.
It’s encrypted, encrypted many times over, it’s completely anonymous… as long as you’re staying inside the network. An exit node connects to the regular internet and that’s what’s going to start showing up on logs. This was completely secure for the people actually dealing in cp.
I can’t believe this stuck, it’s the equivalent of arresting a business owner because someone distributed cp while connected to their Wi-Fi.
Which has probably happened. It’s (shady uses, not necessarily this use) one of the reasons there was a big push to get consumers to put a password on their wifi back in the day.
It’s quite possible he had either a public defender or a poor attorney. I am friends with an attorney who works with the poor, indigent, and people otherwise unable to fight for themselves. I help him out for free when he has questions related to technology and IT. I really need to read up on Tor because there might come a time when I’ll need to assist my friend in a similar matter. It’s quite chilling that the state could potentially punish a business owner for providing a free service like WiFi. I have another friend who runs a the neighborhood sports bar and she offers WiFi to her customers. I think I need to implement some content filtration for her so as to prevent her from potentially getting blamed for a crime she did not commit.
CP laws (in the US and probably other places) fall under a doctrine called strict liability, which basically means that you’re guilty regardless of intent or even knowledge of an offense.
It’s fucked.
There isn’t a crime worse than hurting children. Does that mean we should allow law enforcement infinity leeway to punish these crimes and persue the offenders? I hate to ever give law enforcement any leeway as abuse is so common, but if someone is hurting children I don’t care how you stop it.
Is hosting a tor exit nods with the knowledge that doing so might help pedophiles hurting children? That feels like too many layers to me. Too esoteric.
Not completely secure. If the same entity controls the entry and exit nodes (any maybe also relay?), it is my understanding that traffic can be traced back. Low probability, yes, but not completey.
The high majority of websites are HTTPS, which means that the contents of requests are end to end encrypted. Technically if it’s just HTTP, it’s plaintext, but basically no sites operate outside of HTTPS anymore.
All that stuff about everything you do being in the clear is outdated, and basically just VPN propaganda. The only parts of typical web browsing that aren’t encrypted are DNS resolutions, but DoH and encrypted DNS are starting to be a thing. In which case, your ISP/gov will know you’re accessing your bank’s site, but not what you’re doing on there because everything else is encrypted.
Tl;Dr: Everything being plaintext is really outdated and is basically VPN propaganda. The majority of network traffic for most users is end to end encrypted already.
That is not completely true. Often the payload is encrypted but not the metadata. It is the metadata that usually is the cause of privacy issues.
I think you might misunderstand what metadata is. The type of metadata you might be referring to are simply tracking methods employed on webpages by the likes of Facebook, Google, and other advertisers. But those are encrypted as well, they’re not open to view by anyone in the middle because they also utilize HTTPS. The vulnerability they pose is the potential for that data to be given up, or subpoenaed on the database end. There is no magic unencrypted data sent when dealing with accessing a website except, as mentioned, possibly the DNS query, which can be easily encrypted via DoH.
Except, VPNs and Tor aren’t even magic bullets for privacy. The moment you log into a service, you lose your veil of privacy if your activities can be reasonably linked. To really remain private, you would need to use Tor Browser, likely over a VPN, preferably on a live booted system like Tails, and forego any usage of JavaScript or account logins. Doing anything different exposes you to tracking methods. Which removes you from using the majority of the Internet.
He was convicted (and given probation) for supporting the transfer for Child Porn, not for accessing it or creating it.
They convicted him on “supporting the transfer of underage pornography”, i.e. he ran an exit node that “allowed” the upload of CP to an Austrian image hoster. Apparently, he wasn’t protected because he ran the exit as an individual, not a registered company. Most likely, the Austrian authority checked who uploaded the images, and found his IP address, which became the basis for convicting him. He didn’t have any of the materials because all those stuffs were encrypted in transit.
He mentioned that law that was used to prosecute him was changed a few weeks later to protect individuals as well. He apparently now ran Tor exits under an offshore company.
In summary, from what he said, he just happened to run an unrestricted exit node that some people used to upload CP.
There are 7,000+ Tor relays, and 2,000+ bridges being run by entities including individuals, orgs, corporations, and most likely governments. (https://metrics.torproject.org/networksize.html) So, the answer is yes, no, and something in between. He himself didn’t say, but the article portrayed him of being an individual who believed in free speech, an activity which Tor does help support.
I mean he’s not. He did literally allow CP to be uploaded. And he literally wasn’t legally protected.
I mean… that is the big issue with things like tor and the decentralized youtube alternative everyone wants.
This is an issue on Lemmy as well, one that very few so far seem to have wisened up to. If you host a server and federate it, your server will pull, store and display the content your users are watching for all to see. So you could be on the hook for distributing illegal material if you don’t preemptively defederate from instances potentially hosting content that is illegal for you to possess.
I mean you could say the same thing about any entity hosting public wifi, but I doubt the local cafe owner has to worry when someone breaks the law on their guest network.
This feels really inconsistent is the main problem.
But I personally can’t support anything where “Oh well, I guess I accidentally supported the proliferation of CSAM”.
Does this mean you’re opposed to, say, roads, because they can be used to transport child porn? How about postal services—they’ll even pick it up and deliver it wherever you want!
I don’t care if he was guilty or if the government whatever, the post title makes me sick already.
AFAIK you should never run one on your personal IP
Edit, wasn’t a personal IP. I mistook it when I read his apartment got raided. Advice still stands tho.
There will still be a trail. Even if you’re renting a server. Who’s CC is on file? Unless you want to waste your time buying prepaid visas. And even at that, they could track it to the retailer and find out which CC was used to order that. And even if you went in person, there’s likely video footage. Etc etc etc. It’s incredibly hard to remain hidden nowadays.
