Safer Internet: Browsing: Anonymity

Quotes | Summary |
References: General | Censorship, Journalism, Wikileaks |
Dark Web / Deep Net | NSA, CIA | Tails | Tor

Quotes

• NSA:... No Such Agency
• "Anonymous sources are a practice of... American journalism in the 20th and 21st century, a relatively recent practice. The literary tradition of anonymity goes back to the Bible." ~Joe Klein

Summary

• [3] Use Tor "The Onion Router" and Tails OS "The Amnesic Incognito Live System"
• Advantages: more anonymity for targeted users, e.g., political dissidents, investigative journalists, whistleblowers, criminals, trolls, hate groups
• minimizes associating your actual IP with routing/server activities
• more encryption (like VPN); random routing via multiple nodes
• Disadvantages: difficult to guarantee 100% anonymity, and likely to attract unwanted attention
• difficult to setup; slow; government monitoring / filtering / blocking / censoring
• network {Figure 14: TCYOP-4: 104; TCYOP-3: 87}
• configuration {Figure 15: TCYOP-4: 105; TCYOP-3: 88;}

References

• {TCYOP-4: 103-105; TCYOP-3: 86-88}
• sections: Refs: Censorship, Journalism, Wikileaks; Dark Web / Deep Net; NSA, CIA; Tails; Tor
• topics: China, Iran, ISIS, Silk Road, Snowden, Turkey
• Wikipedia: anonymous browsing; Privacy software
• HowStuffWorks: How Internet Security Works; How to Surf the Web Anonymously; Can the government see what Web sites I visit?
• EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense Tips, Tools and How-tos for Safer Online Communications: Overviews, Tutorials, Briefings, Playlists
• How to Read a Blocked Website
  hide your real IP address with a proxy connection, e.g., VPN;
  try using TOR (The Onion Browser); LH; 9/2/2022

Censorship, Journalism, Wikileaks

• "Censorship reflects a... society's lack of confidence in itself.
  It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." ~Potter Stewart
• "As to the evil which results from a censorship,...
  it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends." ~Jeremy Bentham
• "Wikileaks' silencing was sought by antidemocratic governments worldwide --
  including China, whose censors work mightily to block all access to the site.
  Wikileaks' plug was pulled, ironically,... not in China, but by a federal judge in San Francisco." ~Peter Scheer
• Wikipedia: Internet censorship; internet filter
• Wikipedia: WikiLeaks publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources
• HowStuffWorks: How Internet Censorship Works
• Russia May Have Found a New Way to Censor the Internet throttling rather than blocking; Wired; 4/8/2021
• Tuber browser, which let Chinese users register and access banned services like YouTube, has been blocked and removed from China's third-party Android stores BB; 10/10/2020
• I wrote this law [Section 230] to protect free speech. Now Trump wants to revoke it Wyden; CNN; 6/9/2020
• The Internet's most important—and misunderstood—law, explained Section 230 is the legal foundation of social media, and it's under attack; Ars; 6/10/2020

Dark Web / Deep Net

• see also: Shopping: Cryptocurrency
• Wikipedia: Deep Web (aka Deepnet, Invisible Web, or Hidden Web) is not indexed by standard search engines
• Wikipedia: DARPA's Memex search engine for the dark web vs. Memex: 1945 paper that inspired hypertext and the World Wide Web
• Wikipedia. online black markets: Agora; Evolution; Silk Road
• HowStuffWorks: How the Deep Web Works
• Google brings dark web monitoring to all U.S. Gmail users BC; 5/10/2023
• Darknet markets generate millions in revenue selling stolen personal data Ars; 12/3/2022
• The Hunt for the Dark Web's Biggest Kingpin -- The Rise and Fall of AlphaBay:
  Part 1: The Shadow Wired; 10/25/2022;
  Part 2: Pimp_alex_91 11/1/2022;
  Part 3: Alpha Male 11/8/2022;
  Part 4: Face to Face 11/15/2022;
  Part 5: Takedown 11/22/2022;
  Part 6: Endgame 11/29/2022
• The Difference Between the Dark Web and the Deep Web
  surface web: collection of sites indexed by search engines;
  dark web: collection of private networks accessed only by special browsers and/or protocols;
  deep (aka hidden) web: unindexed pages requiring login; LH; 3/15/2022
• Should You Use a 'Dark Web Scan' to Protect Your Identity? LH; 10/23/2020
• Can You Really Hire a Hit Man on the Dark Web? generally scams; NYT; 3/4/2020
• What's Actually on the Dark Web MB; 1/30/2020

National Security Agency (NSA); CIA

• Wikipedia: National Security Agency; Freedom of the Press Foundation
• Wikipedia: Crypto wars; Backdoors
• HowStuffWorks: How the NSA Works

Tails

• Wikipedia: Tails OS The Amnesic Incognito Live System; "a live operating system, that you can start on almost any computer from a DVD, USB stick, or SD card. It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity, and helps you to: use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network; leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly; use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging."
• Privacy-Focused OS Wants to Know How Facebook and the FBI Hacked it Verge; 6//23/2020
• Facebook Helped Develop a Tails Exploit 6/12/2020
• Tails, the security-focused OS, adds support for UEFI Secure Boot ZD; 4/8/2020

Tor

• Wikipedia: Tor ("The Onion Router"); .onion pseudo-top-level domain host suffix for Tor
• The Tor Project merges with Tails
  a portable Linux-based OS focused on user privacy and anonymity; TC; 9/26/2024
• Tor Browser for Apple Silicon Macs is Now Available OSXD; 12/17/2022
• Tor is under threat from Russian censorship and Sybil attacks Ars; 12/8/2021
• Someone Is Running Hundreds of Malicious Servers on the Tor Network and Might Be De-Anonymizing Users Giz; 12/3/2021
• What Is Tor and Why Should I Use It? LH; 12/7/2020
• Does Tor provide more benefit or harm? New paper says it depends more harmful in 'free countries'? licit vs. illicit services; Ars; 11/30/2020