[tor-talk] Legal or not on monitoring traffic at a Tor exit?

[grarpamp]

What makes it legal or not is what you do, why you do it
and what you do with it. Law is different from policy and
contract. And they often do not fully line up or cover the
same things. And LE is different from prosecution/defense,
from judge, from jury, from law school and on the street.

> Is monitoring Tor traffic at an exit legal?

The question is not specific enough, so no one can answer it.

> Since the traffic passes "my" computer, seems of
> course I can monitor it or even change it.

Ditto.

> When people set up a Tor exit, is there any policy from
> Tor governing the behavior of the operators?

The project site, people here, users and other operators
all have similar expectations. Some transgressions result
in node blockage. Some operators do whatever they want
as some things are unknowable or unenforceable.

> When people set up a Tor exit... Is there any legal liability?

Operators may for various reasons be raided, sued, or
shut down. That has it's own problems. So far in the USA,
due to the various exceptions available to operators, there
are no known cases where the operator was found guilty
or liable. Criminal guilt is different from civil liability.

> I don't bother with modifying somebody's traffic.

Some modifications are legal, some are not.

> Basically, you are saying once we run exits, the computers
> are not our own computers any more:

Ownership is not the same as models of use. You have
different limitations and permissions with different usage.

> Tor exit operators == ISP, from the perspective of laws.

Generally yes. Note also any TOU/AUP/Privacy contract.

> What if somebody attacks my computer running a Tor exit
> via Tor? I have to call police since I cannot check the
> content of the attack traffic?

This question is not specific enough for anyone to answer.
There are cases where you may look at content, or not.
And cases to file criminal, civil, or not.

Read the site, websearch for general presentations, bring
specific questions to proper counsel. Especially before
teaching others based on anything us laymen say you
can or cannot legally do.