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A Tor Project grandee sought to correct some misconceptions about the anonymizing network during a presentation at the DEF CON hacking convention in Las Vegas on Friday.
Roger Dingledine, one of the three founders of the Tor Project, castigated journos for mischaracterizing the pro-privacy system as a bolthole exclusively used by drug dealers and pedophiles to hide from the authorities.
In fact, he said, only three per cent of Tor users connect to hidden services, suggesting the vast majority of folks on the network are using it to anonymously browse public websites for completely legit purposes. In other words, netizens – from journalists to activists to normal peeps – use Tor to mask their identities from website owners, and it's not just underworld villains.
Dingledine even went as far as saying the dark web – a landscape of websites concealed within networks like Tor – is so insignificant, it can be discounted.
Only 3%, but what a 3% it is, eh?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Monday July 31 2017, @07:33AM (1 child)
The greater problem is that (fake) journalists try to disparage privacy tools in the eye of the public and by extension law makers. Just like using computers were presented first as "uncool" and then only done for nefarious purposes.
The same power and money that flows to political candidates also flows to editors of "news" media. The sources of course have other interests than citizens being able to protect themselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @11:41PM
and that's all it takes, as ignorance of something makes people scared of it. IOW, all you have to do is give them a little nudge and BAN! JAIL! STEAL! KILL!