Dec 28 2010

Wikileaks, Tor, Betrayal and Conflict of Interest

Those of you thinking Tor helps you, remember wikileaks started with scanning Tor, and Tor’s Jacob Applebaum supports them heavily.

—@zedshaw via Twitter

This tweet set off my alarm bells for a couple of reasons. For one Zed Shaw suggest that Tor doesn’t work. The implied message is that if you think you can trust Tor to provide anonymity, think again. Secondly, @zedshaw seems to think that Jacob Appelbaum’s involvement with Wikileaks _and_ Tor somehow calls into question the Tor project’s integrity. Additionally the claim that Wikileaks was started with material obtained from scanning Tor has been denied and no proof to the contrary has been shown.

Upon responding to this tweet a heated exchange between @zedshaw, @ioerror and a couple others took place. A blog post by @zedshaw details why he doesn’t use Tor, the most important factor being a supposed conflict of interest.

But all of this is just unsubstantiated and could be hypothetical, what actually worries me is Jacob Appelbaum works on Tor and works for Wikileaks. This to me is the Hitler Grilled Cheese of the argument, the historical context that drives me away from Tor. Wikileak’s job is to take people’s secrets and show them and who’s hiding them to the world. Tor’s job is to do the inverse. The two project’s goals don’t align, and having one dude do both gives me the willies.

Actually Wikileaks exists “to bring important news and information to the public”, by providing “an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information”. Keeping their sources anonymous not only from the public, but also from Wikileaks staff is crucial. Tor’s job is precisely to provide such anonymity. The two project’s goals align and compliment each other very well. Yet according to @zedshaw the anonymity Tor provides to potential whistleblowers is somehow at odds with Wikileaks’ stated purpose.

Finally, I will go on record right now saying Wikileaks rocks. I think there needs to be more of this, and actually I think the world will benefit more from more international coverage and more corporate leaks. But, if anyone from Wikileaks tries to work with me or on any project I’m on you bet your ass I’m not trusting them one bit.

Never trust a traitor, no matter how noble their intentions.

According to this logic, Wikileaks rocks and the world benefits from more leaks, but anyone who works for Wikileaks to provide these benefits, are traitors and not to be trusted?

Update: 2011/01/12

Please remember what Tor DOES and DOES NOT do.