80% of Tor Traffic Is Not Child Porn

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Leave it to the Department of Justice to get this statistic wrong. :(

“Tor obviously was created with good intentions, but it’s a huge problem for law enforcement,” Caldwell said in comments reported by Motherboard and confirmed to me by others who attended the conference. “We understand 80 percent of traffic on the Tor network involves child pornography.”
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Can't a brother just get some crack? Why does it always get lumped in with child porn?
 
A made up statistic, but it doesn't matter. The damage is done. This will be a rallying cry for every misinformed anti-TOR talking head across the country.

I don't encourage TOR use nor do I use it myself. Not everyone on TOR is shitty, but the shittiest people on the internet are on TOR (the same could be said of Twitter). That being said, I don't feel the network needs to be destroyed because it makes certain government entity's (CIA,FBI) jobs more difficult.
 
I wouldn't believe them if they said 0.8% is that sort of content. I know that it does exist and that it is a problem, but I REALLY doubt that it's anywhere near as widespread a problem as any government figure would claim.

They are just making up some statistic - as already mentioned - simply because they feel it'll get most average people (who listen to media for everything and do no independent thinking or fact-checking) to support additional censorship.

It's really, really sick for politicians to take a real issue and use it for nothing more than political gain.
 
I dont even know how Tor encryption fully works... I hate the fact that it feels like i need to "study"
just to get a understand of how it works. I know. By opening tor and going to hardforum.com Cant my ISP see i went to hardforum.com? I got a shit ton of notifications recently for watching a video on popcorn time and my isp isnt happy...
 
pliskin679 said:
I dont even know how Tor encryption fully works... I hate the fact that it feels like i need to "study"
just to get a understand of how it works. I know. By opening tor and going to hardforum.com Cant my ISP see i went to hardforum.com? I got a shit ton of notifications recently for watching a video on popcorn time and my isp isnt happy...
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No, it cannot, because the request gets sent through the TOR network and the URL you are looking for is actually encrypted within the HTTP request itself. Your computer notifies TOR that you want to access a site and TOR bounces the request around several random/pseudorandom servers, eventually spitting the request out an exit node which contacts (one of) the server(s) that hosts hardforum, says "I want the page located at hardforum.com" (which it does because the webserver is only contacted as an IP address and it can host multiple sites).

If the request weren't encrypted, you would be able to look into the request to see that it's hardforum the user was looking for.
 
does it hinder speed due to all the communication? im genuinely curious about tors working now. I dont do anything that would even require TOR, But privacy is privacy i guess.
 
pliskin679 said:
does it hinder speed due to all the communication? im genuinely curious about tors working now. I dont do anything that would even require TOR, But privacy is privacy i guess.
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on a side note, maybe using TOR when its not needed could get you in more trouble just for using it (suspicious activity? if the gov't outlaws it or some shit) ((you never know wtf our govt is doing in todays world))
 
Big shocker, some public figure giving statements and facts that are misunderstood (because said person knows fuckall about the subject they are talking about) and the net result is incorrect statements and lies being told.
 
pliskin679 said:
I dont even know how Tor encryption fully works... I hate the fact that it feels like i need to "study"
just to get a understand of how it works. I know. By opening tor and going to hardforum.com Cant my ISP see i went to hardforum.com? I got a shit ton of notifications recently for watching a video on popcorn time and my isp isnt happy...
Click to expand...

You want to use a proxy if you want anonymity, which is just sending your regular internet traffic through an intermediary network so it is harder to track. TOR is a network that exists in the same space (figurative and literal) as the internet, but is entered through a different "door" and hosts sites only available for those who enter that "door". Think of a proxy like laundering money, it goes in dirty and comes out clean. Think of TOR as the champagne room in a strip joint, a seedy back room that is closed off to the public and prying eyes, only accessible through specific means.

A proxy will slow down your traffic, by an amount commiserate with the speed of the proxy server and about a million other factors, but probably not enough for you to notice.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Big shocker, some public figure giving statements and facts that are misunderstood (because said person knows fuckall about the subject they are talking about) and the net result is incorrect statements and lies being told.
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I don't even think its incompetence, I think they lie on purpose to push an agenda.

Look at Pelosi for example, she lied through her teeth and no one ever really said a damn thing about it. And those lies all happened to always be in her favor to push her agenda.
 
pliskin679 said:
I dont even know how Tor encryption fully works... I hate the fact that it feels like i need to "study" just to get a understand of how it works. .
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Yeah, if you're looking to evade a large 3 letter agency with billions of dollars a year in funding, all it's going to take is a couple tin cans and a roll of string, can't see any reason that it might be technically complicated. :rolleyes:



pliskin679 said:
I know. By opening tor and going to hardforum.com Cant my ISP see i went to hardforum.com? I got a shit ton of notifications recently for watching a video on popcorn time and my isp isnt happy...
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That's because PT uses P2P sharing, IE. you're also uploading the video you are watching and sharing it with others.
 
Ducman69 said:
I don't even think its incompetence, I think they lie on purpose to push an agenda.

Look at Pelosi for example, she lied through her teeth and no one ever really said a damn thing about it. And those lies all happened to always be in her favor to push her agenda.
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Definitely 100% not incompetence. This is someone's agenda. I don't know if this video was put on the front page:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeCj4y36UKM

This video is nothing but blatant lies. In fact, the girl in the video is actually 180 degrees off from what net neutrality is and what it does. If you do a little research you find that Freedomworks is actually a lobbying group for libertarians and republicans *note here that I do not follow any political party I despise them all*. The fact that she is lying doesn't matter, if you follow the party you vote what the party votes, and believe what the party believes.
 
What, false information from the government, and government leaders with no idea what they are talking about? I'm shocked.
 
In this thread, people who don't know what TOR is or how it works.

Jesus, if even the [H] readers get it this wrong, how do we expect the average citizen or politician to have a clue.
 
Well, damn. There goes 80% of my reason for Tor. Back to crack and meth, with a side of assassinations I guess.
 
Gweenz said:
You want to use a proxy if you want anonymity, which is just sending your regular internet traffic through an intermediary network so it is harder to track. TOR is a network that exists in the same space (figurative and literal) as the internet, but is entered through a different "door" and hosts sites only available for those who enter that "door". Think of a proxy like laundering money, it goes in dirty and comes out clean. Think of TOR as the champagne room in a strip joint, a seedy back room that is closed off to the public and prying eyes, only accessible through specific means.

A proxy will slow down your traffic, by an amount commiserate with the speed of the proxy server and about a million other factors, but probably not enough for you to notice.
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what? you can browse the public internet via tor, most people that I have seen use it have used it to bypass content restrictions
 
Decibel said:
In this thread, people who don't know what TOR is or how it works.
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Of course people know what it is and how it works. It's The Onion Router. In addition to the usual series of internet tubes there are also hidden layers (like an onion!) of tubes all connected together that hide child porn from the police.
 
Another classic case of "if you don't understand, fear or are intimidated by it, call it names".
 
Decibel said:
In this thread, people who don't know what TOR is or how it works.

Jesus, if even the [H] readers get it this wrong, how do we expect the average citizen or politician to have a clue.
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Because we aren't spewing made-up 'facts' to push an agenda that will impact millions of people. We're just talking with each other and it has zero effect on anyone else. When it comes to people making decisions for other people, then you can start complaining that people don't know what they are talking about. Which we are about this guy.

I think a lot of [H] knows what it is, but they either don't use it or don't care enough to learn what it does in depth.

I always thought it was a place for torrents and run by a guy names Terrance over in Florence. I guess I was off a bit. :confused:
 
dandragonrage said:
I wouldn't believe them if they said 0.8% is that sort of content. I know that it does exist and that it is a problem, but I REALLY doubt that it's anywhere near as widespread a problem as any government figure would claim.

They are just making up some statistic - as already mentioned - simply because they feel it'll get most average people (who listen to media for everything and do no independent thinking or fact-checking) to support additional censorship.

It's really, really sick for politicians to take a real issue and use it for nothing more than political gain.
Click to expand...

According to the actual study, 80% of the hidden site traffic is child pornography, not 80% of overall TOR traffic. Hidden site was something like 2% of overall traffic? So something like 1% - 1.5% of total TOR traffic appears to be for child pornography. Doesn't seem too far off to me.
 
TwistedAegis said:
Unrelated - RT.com is russian today, funded by the Kremlin. While sometimes it's unbiased, it's primarily a propaganda piece directly funded by Putin.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ys-relationship-to-moscow-putin-clears-it-up/
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yes you are correct.
Didn't occur to me to look for the horse's mouth :/ (was searching the web about the investigation RT was the best I could find quickly)

Horse's mouth:
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/inve...igates-problems-sex-predator-stings/20802715/
 
How would anyone know what TOR is being used for? I used TOR briefly. Isn't anonymity the whole point? And it's anonymity at the anti-CIA level of anonymity... so wtf ?
 
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