On 8/8/2011 9:34 PM, Jimmy Richardson wrote:
On 8/9/2011 5:44 AM, Joe Btfsplk wrote:
Jimmy, though you have some valid points, I think you missed my point
entirely (possibly some other posters').
Actually I do see your point, as I have said, we have different
assumptions regarding how censor would react to anti-censorship
activities, let's just agree to disagree here. But even under your
assumption, I don't see the reason to bash Google here. True, Google
could sell you out to governments, but so could any company (for
example your ISP). The difference between Google and your average
company is: a. Google actually made a stand against censorship, and
suffered the retaliation; b. Google is providing computation resources
for free. If you want privacy/anonymity, you just need to code
encryption routines for the proxy you run on Google's AppEngine, it's
no different from the suggestion to run Tor over Telex. And for the
free service they provided against censorship, we should be thanking
Google (and Telex if it gets built). As far as I can see, Tor is
already losing against the censors, I think Tor should welcome some
help in fighting against them.
I think we're beating a dead horse & maybe talking about 2 diff things.
I'm not bashing Google - just stating instances of their record. Yes,
they provide lots of free services - including email. But before one
sends unencrypted email to Gmail & quite a few other "free" providers (&
also persons replying to email sent thru the "scanning" providers), it'd
better be info they don't mind * possibly * the entire world knowing.
I just don't think Google is a good choice to count on to protect your
identity (& stake your freedom on, * if living in a highly repressed
nation *), even if they do offer valuable services for "free."
I hope other entities will step up to offer the kinds of services you
mention, for users in repressed nations - if none exist. Google's &
some other providers' privacy policies are quite dismal from a privacy
standpoint.
In the US & some other nations, for now, loosing your freedom isn't an
issue - unless breaking some laws. I was speaking about very repressed
nations, where people can be jailed simply on suspicion. In THAT kind
of society, I wouldn't trust Google (OR a lot of others), if offering
services you refer to. In the US & other "free" democracies, invasion
of privacy & failure to protect identity are probably the only drawbacks
to using Google - & other provider w/ similar privacy policies - for
services you mention - unless violating laws.
_______________________________________________
tor-talk mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk
