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posted by azrael on Monday July 28 2014, @06:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the morality-tech dept.

Last fall the Tor Project partnered with Transition House, a domestic violence prevention organization. Since then, the two groups have been working to develop a resource that will provide staff and advocates with the base level of technological know-how required to address casework with a digital abuse component.

"Abuses with technology feel like you're carrying the abuser in your pocket. It's hard to turn off," said Kelley Misata, a Tor spokesperson.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by doublerot13 on Monday July 28 2014, @06:22PM

    by doublerot13 (4497) on Monday July 28 2014, @06:22PM (#74707)

    Like anything else that is an effective tool, Tor can be used for good and bad.

    You can't legislate morality. People just need to be shown that is it their[and everyone else's] best interest to not be an ass.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @06:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @06:34PM (#74716)

      People just need to be shown that is it their[and everyone else's] best interest to not be an ass.

      Except in a society that reveres selfishness, sociopaths, and assholes, its not.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:13AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:13AM (#74821)

      > You can't legislate morality.

      But you can create laws that make it harder to act morally. Like making whistleblowing defacto illegal, just one example that a lot of people here are familiar with.

      It's kind of like an "overflowing cup" - no matter what you do, you can't put more water into a cup than will fit. But you can cover the cup so as to keep water out.

      > People just need to be shown that is it their[and everyone else's] best interest to not be an ass.

      That's a little idealistic, even for this idealist. The tragedy of the commons is proof that what's in an individual's best interests isn't necessarily in society's best interests.

      FWIW, what I believe is that the best we can hope for is to make sure we don't give people any additional reasons to act selfishly.

  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 28 2014, @06:25PM

    by kaszz (4211) on Monday July 28 2014, @06:25PM (#74708) Journal

    That NSA is actively working to run their own exit nodes makes this kind of protection kind of ambivalent. They are in fact stalking the entire population on a global scale. And while the effect aren't felt now because it's only logging. The same can't be assured about the feature.
       

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Monday July 28 2014, @06:44PM

      by frojack (1554) on Monday July 28 2014, @06:44PM (#74720) Journal

      But related to the story at hand, I suspect the NSA isn't going to notify her stalker about anything they monitor.

      I don't understand why someone didn't council her to simply close every on-line account she ever opened, get a new phone on a different carrier and set up two factor authentication. TOR by itself isn't going to help you much if you keep visiting the same old web accounts for which you already gave away passwords, or keep on sending emails to the same people.

      --
      No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Monday July 28 2014, @06:59PM

        by MrGuy (1007) on Monday July 28 2014, @06:59PM (#74726)

        I don't understand why someone didn't council her to simply close every on-line account she ever opened, get a new phone on a different carrier and set up two factor authentication.

        For that matter, I don't understand why someone didn't council her to simply move to a new town, get a new identity, change her appearance, and never contact anyone from her old life again.

        Oh, wait. I DO understand that. It's because it's HER LIFE, not her attackers, and she has the right to reclaim it in her own name. The amount of disruption to her life to find and close EVERY account (which, by the way, isn't actually easy on every system out there) is immense.

        • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @07:15PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @07:15PM (#74733)

          so let's see here ...facebook block, cell carrier can block calls and texts, email can block. am i missing something or is there more to this? when my ex wife tried causing problems it wasn't that hard to erase her. why does everyone have to make stuff so complicated. so now you have taken away all contact digital..."but what if he uses an unlisted number" you say....don't answer the calls and let it go to voicemail. then take that voicemail and press charges and i am sure the phone company will help you. they show up call the cops. don't like to be hit then leave. it is these people that stay in the relationship that always whine for help and when they have it they go back.

          • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:48PM

            by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:48PM (#74979) Journal

            You might try learning about *why* so many abuse victims fail to leave, rather than leaping to conclusions based on ignorance. I used to think much the way you did, in part because I'm strong-willed, somewhat aggressive by nature and had very good self-esteem. I looked down on the victims with enough arrogant pride that it blinded me from seeing danger signs when I should have.

            There three basic categories of reasons that people don't leave an abuser:

            -- Lacking the financial/physical resources. Getting away long-term requires reliable transport and quite a bit of money, especially if the person's friends have abandoned him/her and he/she escaped with only the clothes they wore plus what they could stuff into a bag. They also have to be able to quickly find a job that's good enough to pay for survival. If the person doesn't have their own car, job/income, bank account, a chance at getting a new job in a hurry, etc. then their chances of independence are slim.

            I learned that one when I was staying with the guy I was in a LTR with on the other side of the country. I'd spent the day using free wifi with my laptop while he was at work, and realized (without understanding 'why' just yet) that I really, really didn't want to go back to his place, I wanted to go home far away from him. But with virtually no money, my options were to go back to his place or sleep on the streets.

            (Incidentally, that is why I believe that everyone capable of having a career should do so, and anyone like me that's too disabled should have a reliable income even if we marry someone with a job.)

            -- Unacceptable sacrifice involved. The person may be afraid their partner will hurt or kill their pets if they leave, or they're afraid that they'll lose custody of their child (like if the victim has a mental illness even if it's totally controlled & has never affected their parenting, or they have a job that society frowns on, or the abuser can afford a much much better lawyer, ec.). Or they'd have to leave an aging in-law, parent, etc. behind that is totally reliant on them, which would mean the person would end up in a horrible nursing home or worse. Or -- this applied to me -- they're convinced that their abuser will commit suicide and can't yet stand the kind of horrible feelings of guilt that might bring upon them.

            -- Psychological/mental states. Many victims are manipulated into believing that that their partner has their best interests in mind, and not be able to see the cruelty in his/her behavior or words. My brain just couldn't see things objectively (I would've known it was abuse if a friend had been the victim) until afterward -- and then at some point I went, "holy shit, no wonder I was so fucking depressed back then..." A victim likely won't stay away from their abuser for long until that revelation hits them.

            That's just a quickie run-down, there's plenty of better explanations/descriptions on the web of the actual reasons people don't leave abusers. Even if you likely won't be a victim, chances are that someone you're close to has been or will be, and they'll deserve your understanding/support rather than the same arrogant condescension I would've shown...

        • (Score: 4, Interesting) by frojack on Monday July 28 2014, @07:23PM

          by frojack (1554) on Monday July 28 2014, @07:23PM (#74738) Journal

          Her life. So she should do nothing to protect it?
          TFS already stated the police were powerless to do anything,

          You don't need to change most these random accounts, just abandon them.
          Hell, I do that occasionally anyway.

          You need your bank, and any financials, an email account, and that's maybe one or two more.
          A letter from a lawyer will even get you a new DMV account and license. Close your credit card accounts and start new ones at a different mail-drop address.

          About the only thing TOR can do for you is hide your real IP address, and the ONLY way her stalker would be able to access that is if he is reading all her mail headers. Stop using those email accounts.

          Of course if the guy worked for the NSA [cnn.com] she would have a tougher time, but by the same token she could probably get him a tour of duty in Gitmo if that were the case.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @08:41PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @08:41PM (#74765)

          > Oh, wait. I DO understand that. It's because it's HER LIFE, not her attackers,

          What? Don't you know that if you aren't a Randian Uberman, you don't deserve anything than the subjugation that you have clearly chosen to live your life in by your own free will? Stupid internet troll!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @07:07PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 28 2014, @07:07PM (#74729)

        I read the whole article and I also don't understand what relevance Tor use has in abusive relationships and the story told by the article. Say you're still living with the abuser. How is Tor going to defeat a keylogger? Is Tor needed to sign up for a new anonymous email account and use it to post anonymously on abuse victim forums? Is the Tor Project merely providing general non-Tor advice to these shelters? I don't get it.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @05:12PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @05:12PM (#75141)

          If your abuser has access to your desktop they can see what websites you visit. Tor can prevent this. If your abuser has access to your wifi network they can see what websites you visit. Tor can prevent this. If your abuser has access to your ISP's logs (it's easier than you probably think), they can see what websites you visit. Tor can prevent this. If your abuser can setup a XSS exploit they can gain access to your online accounts. Tor can prevent this. You might be amazed how much someone can learn about you simply by knowing what websites you visit, and simply divulging this information to a victim is absolutely devastating.

          Yes of course they can run a keylogger, and yes of course there are ways around this. But simply using Tor Browser Bundle is an easy choice anyone can make to drastically improve someone's anonymity online, and therefore make them safer from abuse.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by GWRedDragon on Monday July 28 2014, @07:44PM

        by GWRedDragon (3504) on Monday July 28 2014, @07:44PM (#74748)

        What about when someone working at the NSA is the stalker?

        It's not out of the question, plenty of cases have been recorded.

        --
        [Insert witty message here]
        • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Monday July 28 2014, @08:28PM

          by frojack (1554) on Monday July 28 2014, @08:28PM (#74763) Journal

          Well, story said nothing about that, but I did cover that possibility in a subtread...
          http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/politics/nsa-snooping/ [cnn.com]

          Pretty sure the NSA wouldn't want any coverage about this and would ship that guy out on the first plane to gitmo.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday July 29 2014, @11:29AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday July 29 2014, @11:29AM (#74939) Journal

        I don't really see how Tor's unlikely to be of much help, either, based on avoiding my own abusive ex for the last decade... However, closing accounts also isn't remotely enough: from experimenting with web searches on my own (knowing that's how he "hunts" his exes), I discovered that finding me would only require a few unique results from any mix of these: personal interests, first/middle or last name, nicknames, hobbies, city, region, first or last names of my friends or relatives, the college I went to, unique personal events, favorite musical artists/groups...

        As for the phone: I changed the numbers/carriers, and use a Google number for any store club cards or similar. My solution beyond that has been to screen all calls on the landline & any on my cell from an unrecognized number -- but I put off checking my messages until I know an important message is likely waiting.

        My cell provider, Ting (only one with a smartphone plan I can afford) doesn't offer call blocking. Even if they did: my landline is unlisted (cost of callerID & need to keep it out of public listings) and my mother uses it to call me when I'm out (she frequently loses her cell & has trouble hearing on it). If I only let through whitelisted (familiar) numbers, I'd then miss important messages/calls from my HMO, the vet, or others using outgoing lines that are different from the incoming ones I have in my address book.