[tor-talk] Giving Hidden Services some love

[Peter Presland]

On 04/01/2015 21:31, Jesse B. Crawford wrote:
> On 2015-01-04 02:37, Peter Tonoli wrote:
> 
>> Which contradicts with the point of hidden services in the first place,
>> that neither party knows the others identity [1].

I'd say that was a blinkered view of the potential usage of hidden
services. The case cited is one where both parties require anonymity,
the most widely known examples being the 'illegal markets', but there
are at least two other cases:

1. HS provider requires anonymity - eg a publisher of classified or
otherwise forbidden information that needs to avoid the attentions of
those who would suppress such info.

2. HS client requires anonymity - A striking example being US government
employees who want to peruse (for example) the Wikileaks cables but who
run serious risks with career if they do so without solid end-to-end
anonymity and content encryption.

I am currently experimenting with case 2 on a Thomas White-provided HS.
Wikispooks does not seek anonymity, but there are many groups of people
who cannot risk accessing the site regularly unless their anonymity is
well assured. My intent is to remove the risk of a compromised exit node
by providing a tunnel from the HS to the main site - and various other
gizmos as and when experience indicates.