Jacob Appelbaum on How OSS Improves Cryptography 35
destinyland writes "Jacob Appelbaum, the Tor Project's main advocate, argues that Open Source software is necessary 'to both verify and improve' available cryptography. (Adding 'We also need that to ensure that everyone has a reasonable baseline — which is part of the cypherpunk ethos.') In this new interview, he's critical of a general public silence over government encroachments on privacy, but points to the current impact of the Tor network now as something that 'runs, is open and is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life.' And he ultimately identifies Tor as 'part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy,' saying the distributed anonymous network 'helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself.'"
They wont make it illegal (Score:5, Interesting)
They'll just put anyone who uses it under the most intense surveillance, hack their computers, creep into their house when they aren't around, etc. This is effectively better than making it illegal because it gives users a false sense of security. While they use Tor, they are being monitored by the secret services.
Tor does not prevent monitoring or surveillance. Surveillance that can see everything you do at your computer, everything you type, etc. What good is Tor under surveillance? It's useless if you're using it to go against the government.
Re:Till... (Score:4, Interesting)
The technology doesn't matter. A prohibition is designed to give the authorities 'probable cause' to spy on you and enter your house as they please without having to worry about that silly old constitution.