Careful running a TOR exit node!

http://raided4tor.cryto.net/
Kinda like running an open access point, the feds are knocking down your door for what someone else does with your internet address.

Here's the deal - if you wanna run a exit node for tor, I'd strongly recommend that you implement your own safetynets - as well, a simple example - remove all the porn... Since you get the pure information flow, traffic-restricting this in the sense of "removing not-so-etical-content", I see no problem with it, because it's not part of the tor filosophy to allow access all things in that sense, it's to remove sensorship. Yes yes, one might argue that "well, now you are restricting it!" - not really. You are safekeeping your interests and makes sure that you can without having a cup of paranoia everytime you fire up the exit node, that you servre the tor user a legitime at better internet - protecting both of you.

They really need to construct a proper method of handling situations like these. Police shouldn't be able to just take all of your equipment that doesn't even pertain to the investigation because you ran a perfectly legal service offsite. It's possible to determine a relation to TOR right off the bat so the investigators really should have done a better job on gathering intel before showing up at his place. I mean come on, a pocket knife? an Xbox 360? They really need to get it through their heads that an IP address does not mean a person and that hundreds of people can be going through one IP address.

I personally am grateful for all of those who run exit nodes, not because I use them, but because I have numerous friends in the darker places of the world where you disappear if you speak out against the government, and in turn require a method of at least kind of hiding your traffic.

People have to understand, that to some degree, we made our own monster, in that of TOR. TOR is great for oppressed people in countries where the government censors and blocks access to freedom of speech, access to world news and communications. But at the same time, our Navy, who in part developed TOR, in some respects probably knew full well what would be in store and how it would get used. Our government has things in place, for example, lets say your site is perfectly legal, never committed a crime.

But if they seize your host companies servers in connection with anything, they legally have access to your data and servers too.

Example, dropbox. Cloud based storage. They don't need to ask drop box for access to your account. All they have to do, is charge Dropbox with something, they can view anyones files in the mean time, since it would then fall under their jurisdiction. So they catch wind of a TOR exit node that passed child porn, most likely something they themselves put out there to catch pedophiles(they've done it numerous times in the past), and they want to catch the end users, they don't go after the end user, they seize the exit node, take your stuff, and then turn it all back on at their site, and just collect the illicit users, using your boxen as Mr. Honeypot.

Is it right? No. Is it fair, no. Is it legal? Yes, and that in part is why we have to work with people like the EFF to help protect us from being accessories in crimes we have no control over. You freely let anyone use your IP space to do whatever you want, you in part take on some responsibility for what is transfered over that network, and child porn, while you may have no knowledge of the transmitted data, is in part something they will come after you for, regardless. But there in lies the catch 22, how do you know, someone didn't intentionally do this over your exit node, to come after you. Much of TOR comes back as unknown country, and non traceable in some parts of the world, depending on how you set it up, but if you are allowing TOR from your home ISP, without running it over a VPN or Additional Tunnel services, your IP still is your IP. The user is much safer since the trail of bits leads back to your exit node, but if you don't take steps to encrypt and tunnel the TOR traffic in general, then your home IP is the first place they will go to get the data they want.

Too many people abuse TOR, and child porn, while horrible and exploitive in nature, is the least of the governments worries with respect to accessing peoples data. Its just one method they can use to take over your network and use it to monitor whatever they want coming down the pipeline.

It is how people use it and abuse it. Child Porn is a very serious and dangerous culture. It is actually considered a black market... sick shit and a sick society...

On the other hand; TOR is fantastic if you don't like having all of your info stolen and distributed across servers world wide. I like my privacy for the most part and FB relies on my "likes" to conduct its' big business practices... like it or not, FB is seriously pwnd by TOR... I push teh like button on that...

It's very simple, if you don't want to pay for someone's illegal doing, don't run your computer as a TOR exit relay. Either use it as bridge or relay node, but never as an exit node.

Tor is safe to use, but you must use it with caution and always take extra care when using it.

Onion routing was meant for free speech, the 1st amendment. There are places in world where amendments don't exist. I don't think the developers of TOR intended to host porno or death threats to Obama. It would be great if they made it text only - like lynx, to support encryption methods already in use.

If you plan to run an exit node from anywhere it's best to contact your ISP and see what their policy says about it. You might find they block certain ports (e.g. 9001) which Tor uses by default or they may disconnect you for ToS violation. Assuming they are unconcerned you can then set up and hope the cops don't show up. Here in the UK there was some interest by law enforcement but no raids that I know of. Australia, Austria and Germany have seen raids on exit node operators.

I have run a Tor relay (non-exit node) for a couple of years and my ISP hasn't cared (as far as I know). If you have a server then running an exit node is a great thing to do if you don't mind the possibility of a bit of hassle and if you want to avoid any kind of hassle then I would urge you to run a relay (or many). Given that all traffic is encrypted and you can run it over port 443 it is a little hard to identify as Tor and I'm sure most ISPs couldn't care less.

Warning note: the default Tor config is set up to work as an relay AND exit node. Just change the Exit Policy to REJECT *.* in torrc file to only relay traffic.

You could use a bridge if your ISP is blocking those ports. Bridges uses port 443, which by default shouldn't be blocked

I am not sympathetic to the child porn argument. I do not believe that
possession of child porn should be considered a felony.

I understand heaping heavy punishments on people who create or profit from
child porn, or any other despicable exploitation of minors, however it
should never be illegal to have some magic sequence of bits stored on your
hard drive or passing through your network card. The way we criminalize and
deal with possession of child porn in the USA is dangerous to our personal
liberties, our constitutional rights, and may even be counter-productive
with regard to actually protecting children from abuse.

I'm not saying it's illegal, or should be illegal to run an exit node, I
think tor is a cool idea. The problem lies with the fact that someone
can, and most likely will do something stupid with your exit node.
I'm sure eventually the police will return your stuff, it's just a
matter of them going through all of it with a fine toothed comb looking for
the crap that was spewing from your external ip address.

Not to mention anything they find can and will be used against you in a
court of law, whether its "hacking paraphernalia" or not, if you have
anything on there regardless, once they take it, they can pin anything they
want on you, with or without reason. As much as I love my country I truly
HATE with a capital FUCKING hate, the police state mentality that we have
become in the USA. From the formation of Homeland Security to the Patriot
Act, to the secret FISA courts, drone hits on Americans being assassinated
without trial or due process, we live in a time and place that is sad for
our children to grow up in, and if things don't change, it will not only
get worst, our children will become conditioned to it to the point that
they think this is normal behavior. FISA and its original intentions, are
now domestic spying at its finest, because we the people, are now the
enemies of the state.