This is why I reiterate that the privacy problem lies in the “grey area”. Squeaky clean citizens have nothing to hide. Real criminals have everything to hide. But what if you are the fan of something that is alternative, risqué and daring – but not illegal? They will watch you.
So it transpires that the NSA (and presumably other such bodies) are paying particular attention to people who use Tor. You can understand where they are coming from – Tor is used to circumvent official spying. Yes, most people using Tor are just geek enthusiasts, or cheapskate downloaders. In amongst them, perhaps 0.05% are legit gangsters – because most criminals aren’t smart enough to know how to use Tor, or to even consider it.
So a little bit of advice – when using a service that hides your activity, use one that nobody has heard of.
The problem with the news below is that the NSA is keeping note of Linux fans. Apart from being non-standard, I can’t see why Linux users are a demographic that suggests anything illegal or immoral.
These include readers of the Linux Journal site, anyone visiting the website for the Tor-powered Linux operating system Tails – described by the NSA as “a comsec mechanism advocated by extremists on extremist forums” – and anyone looking into combining Tails with the encryption tool Truecrypt.
…Other monitored sites, we’re told, include HotSpotShield, FreeNet, Centurian, FreeProxies.org, MegaProxy, privacy.li and an anonymous email service called MixMinion. The IP address of computer users even looking at these sites is recorded and stored on the NSA’s servers for further analysis, and it’s up to the agency how long it keeps that data.
[Source: The Register]
What next? Go after early adopters of electric cars and Google Glass?
