andai 10 months ago

They say the internet is just someone else's computer. With Tor it's the computer of a person who wants you to think it's not their computer, and also that they aren't paying attention to (or somehow can't see) what you're doing on it.

giantg2 10 months ago

The interesting thing is, the more agencies that run relays, the more they interfere with each other. So having something like US, Russia, and China a each running 25% of the network reduces the chances of any one getting all three relays.

  • droopyEyelids 10 months ago

    This would help negate that interference. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

    • giantg2 10 months ago

      Specifically what I chose US (allies implied), China, and Russia. These should be three competing factions.

      • pasabagi 10 months ago

        I think even Russia and the US still do intelligence sharing on a lot of stuff - and that's before you consider that the US seems to be in everybody's networks anyhow, so non-sharing is probably just sharing with a bit more skullduggery.

        • giantg2 10 months ago

          I don't think they share on the bulk data. I would highly doubt they routinely cooperate on cyber crimes given Russia's stance on the matter (basically encouraging it).

      • trompetenaccoun 10 months ago

        Russia and China are allies. And I'm not sure if Beijing would even be interested in spying on TOR users since it's blocked so thoroughly it's basically unusable for Chinese residents.

    • Aerbil313 10 months ago

      I get scared reading that wiki page. The fact that the Australians are powerless[1] to stop US operating Pine Gap on their own soil, says something about how important the stuff the NSA & co. is doing there. (Surveillance) Horrors beyond our understanding.

      1: A good video explaining history & status quo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHMa-Ba-2Mo

bawolff 10 months ago

I think the threat model is that the majority are not run by cooperating malicious parties.

Russia, china and usa all dont like each other much so are probably not sharing notes (in theory).

  • aftbit 10 months ago

    Or perhaps they _are_ sharing notes about tor users with each other, as part of a global club of intelligence agencies (a sort of new world order) who would rather not be overthrown. How are we to know?

    • anticorporate 10 months ago

      Because if they each only have incomplete information, they each wouldn't know whether the information they have is relevant to preventing overthrow of their collective order, or intelligence that is only going to help their geopolitical adversary.

      Basically, a variation of the prisoner's dilemma.

      Also, those nukes we have pointed at each other are a pretty healthy hint.

    • jrochkind1 10 months ago

      Or perhaps someone with secret quantum computing can break all our encryption and has full transparency on all communications on the internet. Perhaps extraterrestrials are eavesdropping on everything I say in my living room, and sharing it with the KGB. How are we to know?

    • rrrix1 10 months ago

      Occam's Razor definitely applies here.

      "The simplest explanation is usually the best one."

      Conspiracy theories are a logical reasoning black hole.

      I personally feel it's generally best to avoid the mental Spaghettification.

chr_1 10 months ago

Before 2020 when /r/privacy stimulated conversation that was worthy of good discussion you learned Tor the software made less available nodes accessible with newer deployments, that’s why it got faster. Regardless of how many nodes existed. The routing shifted. Now it’s way faster and there's specifically designated guard nodes seemingly pinged repeatedly out to the same allied nations.

darby_nine 10 months ago

In fact, you should assume they are. This doesn't imply the network doesn't have utility for a given actor.