[tor-talk] Police was here - whats next?

[Mike Perry]

Thus spake andrew at torproject.org (andrew at torproject.org):

> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 11:59:21PM -0400, grarpamp at gmail.com wrote 1.2K bytes in 32 lines about:
> : you should seriously consider logging either:
> : a) your own traffic (whether via internet or Tor)
> : b) exit traffic
> : c) both
> : To cover your ass. At least this way you'll have some form of
> : log you can present if needed to give more weight to an
> : explanation.
> 
> I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.  However, after having
> been involved in a number of these cases, the more data you give to the
> police and courts, the more guilty you are in their eyes.  
> 
> There are plenty of places in this world where having something
> encrypted is the equivalent of putting the data in a locked safe.  You
> can be compelled to decrypt the data.  Prosecutors love data.

Expanding on this, if the reason that your node was seized was because
it transmitted something forbidden (leaked, classified, copyrighted,
illegal, etc), having a copy of that material in your possession is
just about the stupidest thing you could do.

For most situations, this immediately makes you just as guilty as
whoever first downloaded the material. Even if it is encrypted, your
key material can be leaked, extracted, and/or compelled in many
situations you probably have not thought about, or at least you
certainly did not mention here.

Beyond this, in the US, storing any communications data is also
illegal with narrow exception:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00002511----000-.html

What you are describing above is probably outside of the exceptions in
(2)(a)(i) for US folks.

The best answer is: Don't run exits co-mingled with your personal
data or on home connections.


-- 
Mike Perry
Mad Computer Scientist
fscked.org evil labs
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