Does using Tor puts you on some kind of list? It would be tragic if someone used Tor to read a scientific article but then got charged with aiding terrorism or looking for child pornography.

> Does using Tor puts you on some kind of list? It would be tragic if someone used Tor to read a scientific article but then got charged with aiding terrorism or looking for child pornography.

If it does, it becomes an ethical maxim to use Tor. If it doesn't, then you can simply use Tor. So by case analysis you should use Tor.

> If it does, it becomes an ethical maxim to use Tor.

This is one of the reasons I use Tor. If there is such a list, I want it to be full of people doing ordinary stuff. In effect, I want the list to be useless.

Indeed, this is the main reason I'm using Signal (and badgering my friends into using it). I want to increase the volume of encrypted non-sensitive stuff, so that the "list" doesn't have predictive value.

Having metadata (i.e. who communicates with who at which time etc.) still has lots of value for the three-letter agencies (some even say it's even more important then the content of the messages itself). As far as I know Signal does nothing to avoid this kind of metadata (but please correct me if I'm wrong).

The fact that using Tor puts you on some kind of list makes it essential that you do in fact use it for innocuous purposes occasionally.

Seeking privacy should never be a crime.

The fact that you even have to think this suggests that you should use Tor so that they don't win in self-censoring the citizens.

Not sure why everyone is downvoting. You may not go on a list, but you could be targeted by the FBI if they can produce "probable cause"

http://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/constitutional-rights...

We re all in lists. In fact, the more lists we're in, the less traceable we are.

nope. tor is anonymizing software used by many thousands of people. if you're really concerned use a VPN first, and download the tor browser using VPN. unnecessary IMO, but if you're concerned then this will give you an extra layer of protection.

> tor is anonymizing software used by many thousands of people.

Many thousands of people out of several billion (I assume …) Internet users is a small enough percentage that it's probably worth someone's while to make a list out of it. A sibling comment has claimed that the NSA specifically notes Tor use (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11637635).

There's a good chance you'll end up on a list if you're an exit node, but if you're just using Tor I think you should be good.

Using Tor does put you on some kind of list, but you aren't going to get charged with aiding terrorism or looking for child pornography because of it. Unless you use it for those things, I guess, and get caught.

> you aren't going to get charged

What is this based on? If it's rationality, that doesn't always apply to legal and political matters, to the very human human beings who make those decisions, or to the politial situation around them.

Using Tor isn't a crime, but the NSA targets people who use or even search about Tor or VPN services for collection through the XKEYSCORE program. So his post is exactly right - using Tor does "put you on a list", but that alone isn't sufficient to be arrested. The NSA documents further state that Tor is relatively difficult to attack and the best they can do is deanonymize a small (and importantly, random) fraction of users some of the time.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/04/nsa-targeting...

I'm familiar with that theory, but do you have any data to support it? For example, maybe they will find another reason to arrest you; maybe they will cite your Tor usage to the judge, jury and public as evidence of your criminal nature.