Live Stoner Chat how safe is this site?

[Corgy]

As for Corgy's comment, I fundamentally disagree with the first article posted. It is a misunderstanding of the available data. the study that was done showed that it was possible to identify a percentage of users, given the right conditions, but it also showed that because of the margin of error, which was approximately 20%, the whole thing was just too unreliable. In other words, you would end up with a list of 1,000,000 users, but 200,000 of them would be false positives, and there is no way to know WHICH 200,000 of them were the mistakes. Perhaps worth the time if you were trying to prevent a terrorist attack, but certainly not to find a closet grow, or a small-time criminal
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-11/20/tor-still-secure

Yeah, that is exactly the point, agree 100 %.

Regarding TOR, it was developed by the US Navy for secure communication on the Internet, but when they realized the identifiable traffic pattern left when using TOR was a dead give-away for US Navy comms, it was released in the wild to obscure who was Navy blokes among all the users. Please also note that TOR is STILL sponsored by various US agencies and Departments.............like I said, make up your own mind about whether to trust TOR or not, and if it is really necessary, ref what Greenjeans said.

I have used TOR but found it slow and hard to use, no doubt due to my superficial knowledge and skills in maneuvering the "shady" net. There is an Android app, Orweb, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=info.guardianproject.browser&hl=en I tried/used it for awhile but found it unreliable, and was often identified as a Honeypot, particularly by sites protected by ZB Block and Stopforumspam, so gave it up.

If I want to be as anonymous as possible, I create a chain of proxies/VPN's, i.e. my VPN is pointed to a proxy which is pointed to another proxy and so on. The more the merrier.....and slooooooooower......Oh well!

 

[greenjeans]

Just to clarify my point, I wasn't saying that TOR is 100%. Nothing is. If a big dog like the NSA wants to find you, they will; make no mistake about that.

But when thinking about VPN vs TOR, you have to decide which is more secure. Some VPNs will give you up in a heartbeat if they are threatened(who knows which ones?). It is just less safe by its very design. It is not meant for this. TOR is. They aren't going to give you up, because they really don't have that ability. The system is designed in such a way that even they don't know the info to provide it. I mean think about it, what is easier for THEM? Threatening or lying to a vpn until they give you up in fear of prosecution, which are tactics that law enforcement already uses all the time (Threats and lies, that is), or setting up an elaborate network of servers and TOR nodes in an attempt to take over a network specifically designed to prevent it, and still having a 20% chance of failure? Trust me, they aren't going to go through all of that for the likes of us. That has been borne out in reality already. You hear about them busting the "silk road", but who says that wasn't because of some snitches? Not to mention the fact that that was, again, a large operation that they spent the resources to pop. Not some small time closet grower.

To me, TOR is the safest bet for us non-programmer types. I would agree that multiple vpns and proxies and TOR all in concert would be even safer, but it still isn't 100%, and in my opinion it is just way complicated, and really is overkill.

Peace, out..

 

[Corgy]

Well said.....

 

[medi]

I'm sorry for not having read every reply so far(in case any of this is redundant) but I wanted to add that you'll want to hide the fact that you're using TOR from your ISP as well if you're trying to be extra safe. This is where VPN/Proxies come in handy. Additionally an anonymous OS like Whonix would provide you additional safeguards by using security by isolation which when combined with security by obscurity(TOR) will provide the best possible protection.

 

[greenjeans]

I have thought about doing that, but I have had some more tech savvy hacker friends point out that although an ISP can see that you are using TOR, they don't know why, or what you are doing. The number of people using TOR has been increasing, so while I don't think it is a bad idea to have an extra layer of obfuscation, I don't personally think it is necessary. All your ISP knows is that you are browsing anonymously. For all they know, you could just not want them to know that you have been looking at gay porn sites, or downloading the latest season of Game of Thrones.

 

[greenjeans]

Thanks for the rep, Corgy! I have been wondering if anyone would ever give me any. lol

 

[Corgy]

Personally I think TOR is completely compromised and the reason why more disclosures about crooks and riff raff being caught because of using TOR, is because..... that would defeat the purpose of TOR...... Some mundane reason for a "catch" will be given...... TOR is developed by US government agencies and is still sponsored by US agencies..... Wonder Why?

 

[greenjeans]

Personally I think TOR is completely compromised and the reason why more disclosures about crooks and riff raff being caught because of using TOR, is because..... that would defeat the purpose of TOR...... Some mundane reason for a "catch" will be given...... TOR is developed by US government agencies and is still sponsored by US agencies..... Wonder Why?

I tend to trust that if people were getting popped while using TOR the whole internet would know it. They might be able to suppress it in the mainstream, but the internet would still be set ablaze with horror stories. That's just my take on it.

 

[medi]

I have thought about doing that, but I have had some more tech savvy hacker friends point out that although an ISP can see that you are using TOR, they don't know why, or what you are doing. The number of people using TOR has been increasing, so while I don't think it is a bad idea to have an extra layer of obfuscation, I don't personally think it is necessary. All your ISP knows is that you are browsing anonymously. For all they know, you could just not want them to know that you have been looking at gay porn sites, or downloading the latest season of Game of Thrones.

If you were for example running a relay it might be something you'd want to hide from your ISP because at the least it's likely a violation of the TOS. The benefit though of running a relay(non-exit) is that you essentially dilute your personal traffic with the traffic that you're relaying. I'd not advise running an exit relay however as the traffic that leaves an exit relay is unencrypted whether they're pictures of cats wearing pajamas or something more sinister and illegal.

 

[Corgy]

I tend to trust that if people were getting popped while using TOR the whole internet would know it. They might be able to suppress it in the mainstream, but the internet would still be set ablaze with horror stories. That's just my take on it.

It's the classic Bletchley Park conundrum......we can't tell we know because then you will know we know and think of something different.......an Enigma........some claim Coventry was deliberately left undefended to not tip off those who must not know we know what they are up to........wheels within wheels........like Enigma!