Gaming Does using Tor get you placed on government watchlists?

[thewannacryguy]

I've been using Tor lately. I logged into GBAtemp using Tor yesterday. Naming myself after a famous ransomware attack and setting my location to North Korea probably doesn't help.

 

[yusuo]

I've been using Tor lately. I logged into GBAtemp using Tor yesterday. Naming myself after a famous ransomware attack and setting my location to North Korea probably doesn't help.

If it did it would kinda defeat the purpose of tor. The whole point is to keep you anonymous

 

[FAST6191]

Would I bet against some three letter agency having a list of known TOR users and/or attempts at deanonymising TOR users* where they can? I would not.

*between adverts, tracking cookies, browser settings (though I still find the use a window of random size advice to be dubious at best, and actively counterproductive at worst), times of day, searches conducted, and sites visited** you can figure out things quite well. Indeed it is speculated advert companies have been doing such things for years even when donut tracking and cookie clearing is in effect.

**in my case even if you had nothing else the daily check list of sites I visit and active connections at the times I do is likely to narrow things down considerably.

The location and name? While it is never sensible to assume the government has a sense of humour with your interactions with them they don't always care to waste their time, and I would assume they are at least peripherally aware of internet, and hacker, culture if for no other reason than to be able to decode it when they encounter it.

Is all that likely to have you your own personal FBI/NSA/GCHQ/NASA/DWP/... agent tracking your every online action, or more seriously having people dedicate some kind of real computer resources to following things you do above the baseline "grab everything we can, and probably a bit more still"? Probably not.

 

[depaul]

Most likely yes.

If you use it for what most people use it for (deep web), then be careful.

Do no evil, fear nothing.

 

[Taleweaver]

I've been using Tor lately. I logged into GBAtemp using Tor yesterday. Naming myself after a famous ransomware attack and setting my location to North Korea probably doesn't help.

Erm...if it's your INTENTION of getting on a government watchlist, then you'll probably have to do better than that. I...am not really comfortable discussing HOW to potentially do that, really.

But it seems to me that even if someone tracks you,then it won't mean much to observers. I doubt anyone is going to say "oh noes! he set his flag to north Korea and calls himself wannacry on a video game forum! Better raise our own red flags before he cyber-attacks North Korea!!!!! ".


While flagging people using tor (when they download it) might be technically possible, I don't see the use in it. If you want to catch speeders, you don't go around keeping lists of people driving cars that can go fast: you lurk on the roads where you can catch people going fast.
In other words: it's more likely that governments flag users of sites trading in forbidden goods. I can't say how well tor helps in that regards...and TBH I'm not eager to find out (I've got the luxury of only wanting to do legal things. It's probably more boring than living on the wild 'site' of life, but I'm okay with being boring... )

 

[Dimensional]

I was told by a conspiracy theorist that simply using Linux puts you on a government list. Not the kind you're thinking of, but one about possible cyber security threats. If true, it simply means everyone is on some government list for absolutely arbitrarily no reason.

 

[smileyhead]

The point of Tor is to keep you anonymous. If your government could identify you if you're using Tor, it would fail its purpose.

 

[MikaDubbz]

It supposedly does, they confirmed as much a few years ago, likely in hopes of stopping anyone from even looking into the dark web. My buddy is pretty sure he's on such a list just for getting the client and looking at the dark web once.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The point of Tor is to keep you anonymous. If your government could identify you if you're using Tor, it would fail its purpose.

Well they can't see your activity on it, but they definitely can see if you download the client on the vanilla web. And that's the point, they want it clear that anyone even downloading Tor will be put on a list.

 

[Goku1992A]

I don't know about the government but I did receive a DMCA complaint from my IP provider. I just used a better VPN

But depending what you are doing on the internet like kitty porn, buying drugs , how to make a bomb and etc yes they will get you on that regardless you using a VPN or not

Pirating video games no not on thier radar

 

[Daggot]

Just googling it will put you on a government watch list. It's the same with words like "Attack", Flu" , "Vaccine" and "Power" for some reason. Honestly you shouldn't worry about it because most of us are on watchlists already, I'd focus on using TOR to avoid corporate surveillance if anything.

 

[Devinel]

being on a watchlist means what? do you really think somebody is investing energy and manpower to watch you play games for 8h straight just to see you writing some code to your teammate and they finally get the wanted criminal? i more think about this system with some kind of "tagging" you keep getting tags that describe your interests, fears, personal stuff and if you collect to many bad tags you will someday get your personal guard. anyway, i fear the day some person comes into my flat and tells me who i am while i have to choose the lesser evil. lets just hope they only use it to show me useless stuff i will buy if it shows up in my adds.