Will Tor Use Get You Arrested? One Tor Node Operator's Analysis

Here is a summary of my thoughts on Tor use for harmless mischief like cheating at video games or boosting coupon codes. This was my third edit - it was really tough to get this to less than ten pages.

WHO: I'm a rolling stone. I smoke bud but don't otherwise consider myself a criminal.

WHEN: Five years. I've been living off of the grid for the last five years. I was a hustler when I was a kid but those days are long ago. My purpose in living off of the grid is for privacy. I don't have a smart phone, don't have a lease, don't have a facebook, don't have a driver's license and don't have a credit card. The government has two sources of data on me: my income tax files and my bank statements. The former I choose to pay and the later I don't know how to get rid of. Hypothesis: By having a low data footprint, I'm not really on any kind of list, not that's relevant to what I'm trying to accomplish.

WHERE: United States of America. I wasn't born here but it's where I work. I don't work under my legal name, but I have to have a bank account to accept checks from my customers, typically large companies.

WHY: I want to give back to you guys. Several of the family have helped me out over the past year and this is my way of giving back. No offense, but a lot of you guys seem technically ignorant. Technology is what I do for a living. I'd actually discourage you from selling drugs because you'd be looking at serious time if you got caught.

WHAT: The Tor network.
SOURCE: As part of my privacy efforts, I was probably one of the first thousand people to begin using Tor when it was recommended to me by a Swedish military cryptographer something like a decade ago. About five years ago I started using Tor almost exclusively for Tor traffic. One time I went on vacation for eight weeks and so Tor was running continuously from my apartment during that time because I forgot to turn my computer off. I've used Tor from my parents house, from retail stores, from my girlfriend's house, from my neighbor's house, from borrowed internet access, from a hospital, from a prostitute's house, inside Fortune 100 company networks, from work, from airports and on airplanes. Next week I'm planning on running it from a US Military Network with military permission just so that I can later brag about it. For six months I was running a Tor relay from the apartment that I was in that I'd rented on bogus papers. My point is that nobody cares if you run Tor. Ross didn't get convicted for using Tor, he got convicted because he was caught with his laptop logged into a drug dealing web site. On the other hand, you might have legal problems if you leave a gram scale visibly on your window sill, and you have seven dudes stopping by your apartment in Grateful Dead shirts at 3 AM and you're dealing coke and playing rock music on your stereo loud enough to annoy your neighbors. Additional observations below. *Drugs - you will be caught by possession of drugs, probably not by informants or forensics. That means if someone accuses you of selling drugs and they raid yourself and find Tor on your computer, but don't find any actual drugs you probably won't be going to jail. If a bag of drugs fall out of your pocket at the DMV, you'll probably be going to jail even if no one informs on you and you don't have Tor installed on your cell phone. Tor is harmless. *VPN are even less suspicious than Tor. *Tor bridges are probably not going to help you. If you're not an arms dealer or a Chinese political dissident, you're burning resources that the US military intends for someone else. Please don't use resources that James Bond needs to cover your dime-bag operation. It won't really help. *If you're a client, you really don't have that much risk at all other than possession, and I can't imagine how using the mail would provide much of a risk if you're buying from a strong vendor. Drop security should reduce much of the residual risk but that is outside of my realm of expertise. People who live in the Bible Belt, on a college campus or in a small town will be running additional risk.
*If you're a petty criminal or a privacy enthusiast, Tor will probably contribute to your operational security if used correctly and consistently and you live in the West. If you're a terrorist or a mobster or a child molester, you have a different situation entirely, and also I don't really like you and hope you get caught. *I'm going to wrap up at this point because I'm tempted here to give you advice on how to minimize your operational risk, but the truth is that I shouldn't really get involved in any of your enterprises, since I myself am not a criminal. Keep in mind that possession of the drugs will usually be what gets you in trouble, and will be a key factor in any case against you.

CONCLUSION: If you get caught, it will probably be because one of your (real life) clients snitches on you. Otherwise it would probably be if you did something stupid like drove drunk with a key of dope in your trunk, or if your vendor fucks up on his OPSEC. Use of Tor will probably not get you flagged in any relevant way, probably won't be used to get a warrant and probably won't be brought in as evidence against you. The NSA monitors Tor when they're looking for terrorists and the FBI monitors Tor when they're looking for child molesters. Your local sheriff's department probably can't use the word "IP Address" correctly in a sentence. Nobody will be subpoenaing your IP address unless you're involved in credit card fraud or something like that.

Epilogue: I don't check Reddit often, since I live off the grid. If this article gets some appreciation, I will probably do a follow-up article detailing police methodologies that I have profiled using open source intelligence. I won't be able to help any of you guys get crimes and I'm not a libertarian or an anarchist or anything. Sorry for my English.


Comments


[43 Points] None:

Needs lots more meth.

Given OP's post history I wouldn't put much stock in what he has to say. Using Tor isn't illegal yet, buying drugs, looking at kiddie porn are. That is what gets you in trouble. This guy isn't saying anything new just jumbling up the same shit that gets said here all the time about maintaining your own opsec and generally not being a dumb cunt.

He came to the wrong place this is a satire and role playing sub.


[28 Points] berneraccount:

Saw wall of text, prepared for disappointment, was pleasently surprised.


[25 Points] RIP_Meth_9000:

Normally I would say "Needs More Meth"....But damn.....I like what you said here friend :-) Needs more follow up!!!!!!!!!!


[22 Points] jjcooli0h:

Here's the cold, hard truth:

92.5% of people arrested and charged with:  

seem to have the following in common--

 

At the time of their arrest, they were:

 

Remember, the tautological moral of the story is:

you never hear about the people who don't get caught......because they don't get caught.


[18 Points] re-ignition:

[deleted]

What is this?


[16 Points] ____delta____:

Next week I'm planning on running Tor from a US Military Network with military permission just so that I can later brag about it

that's a fucking stupid idea.

Your local sheriff's department probably can't use the word “IP Address” correctly in a sentence.

what does that have to do with anything? the DEA and the FBI are the ones shutting down drug marketplaces and prosecuting people who used those marketplaces, not your local police station.

the NSA monitors Tor when they're looking for terrorists and the FBI monitors Tor when they're looking for child molesters

it sounds like you're implying that if you're not looking at child porn or ISIS propaganda then the government doesn't care, which isn't true, who do you think shut down Silk Road?

overall, your post rambles and doesn't say much. the title is "Will Tor Use Get You Arrested?", which is a stupid question because using Tor by itself isn't illegal, buying drugs online is. And yes, buying drugs online could get you arrested, although it's pretty unlikely.

2/10 needs more meth.


[16 Points] None:

[deleted]


[7 Points] Skunkhunter23:

This was awesome.. teach me to do what you do so i can live off the grid too! Oh and this:

Your local sheriff's department probably can't use the word “IP Address” correctly in a sentence.

Had me cracking the fuck up.. follow up post- YES!


[3 Points] BigDickedUnicorn:

So much text and you are not really saying much at all, except using tor is ok.


[3 Points] dawn_tay:

Remind me in 15 days


[3 Points] LetsGetFakedUp:

TL;DR: Will tor get you arrested? No.


[2 Points] budsmokersonly710:

the US govt labels Tor users as "extremists" these days, ive been arrested and that was fine (not tor-related), I'm not ok with being a fucking extremist though...


[1 Points] Thr0wMeAway666:

If you are smoking bud, you are a criminal for the us government no matter if "you dont see it as a crime"


[0 Points] GoldChainzPapi:

I fuck with this shit. Good shit man.