Tor users blocked?

Hi Zorglub, this is certainly an interesting question, and I'm not sure it's one that a responsible forum owner will have a way around.

As we all know we are all responsible for what we post on public forums, and if anything was ever posted that became of interest to a police force then most owners would hand over the logs without question - it's just too much hassle otherwise. Because of the need to be able to do this I can imagine that there are settings in the signup system that will not allow anonymous systems to perform registrations, so it's possible that there is no work-around available if he wishes to use Tor or similar.

With that said we'll have to see if the @Administrator can help here. He's a busy chap and has a number of projects on the go so it might not be an immediate response.

 

I'm able to log in and post this through Tor. Suggest that your friend update his Tor Browser (to say, v.6.0.5+).

 

>"I'm not sure it's one that a responsible forum owner will have a way around."

I urge you to analyze your statement and reconsider what "responsible" really means. A "responsible forum owner" would take the forums' users' privacy into consideration, and impose upon themselves a duty to protect that privacy within the bounds of the law. No forum should do less. A forum dealing with the subject matter of peoples' sex lives should take this even more seriously.

>"As we all know we are all responsible for what we post on public forums, and if anything was ever posted that became of interest to a police force then most owners would hand over the logs without question"

That's horrifying. While I don't expect forum mods to break, or fail to comply with the law, I definitely hoped that the forum would take seriously it's duty to protect users by requiring law enforcement to use the proper procedure(s) to obtain the data. The purpose of law enforcement is not only to catch criminals, but also to protect the rights of the innocent. The law provides a number ways for police to properly obtain such data, and I can only imagine very limited circumstances where it would be acceptable in my opinion to (break the law, and or violate the users' trust) and just "hand over the logs without question".

I am extremely disappointed with your response to a legitimate concern. TOR is a valuable tool which protects individuals' privacy and protects them from abuse, in this case at the hands of oppressive government. The mere fact that TOR also helps some criminals evade police is no more reason to disallow it than the prospect of banning cars because criminals may also use cars to evade police.

 

fdsfdg, ignore that post about legal requirements that you were responding to. I'm sure they meant well and tried to be helpful, but it's not accurate.

BTW, there are too many widespread malicious hacks (for ransom or just for sport) to not use HTTPS and anonymizing browsers for just about everything.

E.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Madison_data_breach

 

Thanks for testing. I was also able to connect and log in via TOR browser v6.0.5 from within the US, on the second attempt. The first attempt timed out.

@zorglub Maybe tell your friend to try again? TOR can be painfully slow.

It would be nice if some people test from other locations. You can download TOR Browser Bundle from here https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en#downloads

 

I agree, and wish to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I still found the administrator's tone dismissive, and I infer from their post a general lack of respect for individual privacy. IMO there are too many people these days who just accept uncritically any assertion coming from authority.

 

Lol its not really in Chicago cause if that bloke gets elected then you will only be allowed to have ladies with big bobbies who are blond and between 18 and 20 on the Internet. So the server is now 3 laptops under the bed in admin's pool house in Denmark.

Xx Wendy

 

Great to hear it's possible then - all my previous can be safely ignored then, and I'm sure it's something that the Admin will want to look into when he has time.

Any and all information regarding it is useful, so thanks all for bringing it up.

 

My apologies then. I'm not the Admin, merely a moderator. I didn't mean to suggest that the Admin would handover logs without correct protocols taking place, but I wouldn't assume either that he's likely to fight any such requests should they be made. It was not in the least my intention to be dismissive.

I do personally question the ethical standpoint of anyone choosing to work within a repressive regime, and presumably happily working to support it in some way or other in exchange for money, but that's a different topic altogether.

Back to Tor - any info about it working or not to register and sign in will be gladly received.

 

Not at all - If anyone happens to be born in such a place and suffer as a result then they have my utmost and sincere sympathies. These people generally do not have a choice in the matter.

All too often though (and I must say I presumed this may have been the case here) one hears people living and working in Saudi and similar as an ex-pat - earning handsomely tax-free and living in a social bubble within a compound, while complaining about the restrictive lifestyle. These complaints I find it harder to have sympathy for.

 

Thanks. To be fair, it's pretty easy to set me off about privacy.