"Article 5 eV, a civil rights group helping to maintain the Tor network, has reported that German police raided the private address where the non-profit was registered.

The authorities came knocking at the Essen-based office on August 16th, 2024, the group said, with armed officers spending nearly two hours in the office. Article 5 eV facilitates Tor network by operating its exit nodes.

“There are obviously still people working in German law enforcement today, who think that harassing a node-operator NGO would somehow lead to the de-anonymization of individual Tor users. At least that is what they claim in the paperwork,” Gero Kühn, the leader of the group, said…"

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      Just makes me want to fight back by helping other people to use Monero, Tor, and other privacy services.

    • ray1992xd@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Makes me feel we are two faced. On the one hand, we are inventing laws to protect privacy of eu citizens. And then stuff like this happens. On the other hand: Just fucked up that the people who use the platform for what is was intended for are now in jeopardy for people who want to look at underage kids, get their SO killed, look at kill cams or buy drugs.

      • ccx@sopuli.xyz
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        5 days ago

        GDPR explicitly exempts government entities. Still, way better than not having it IMO.

        Regulating governmental intrusions into privacy would take a completely separate and probably much larger bill.

        • ghost_of_faso2
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          5 days ago

          Regulating governmental intrusions into privacy would take a completely separate and probably much larger bill.

          It would take a revolution honestly

    • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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      4 days ago

      EU countries are going full in fighting to protect privacy right now.

      Its a battle and there’s people in the government in both sides. Germany has actually been one of the best Member States in the EU preventing erosion of privacy.

      Governments are made up of many different people, frequently with differing goals

    • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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      4 days ago

      Get a distinct line in a dedicated room.

      That way when they confiscate all the equipment, it will only be the equipment used on that Tor network.

      This is the official advise from the Tor project, by the way

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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        4 days ago

        Silly question but how would they know that that it the Tor equipment? Wouldn’t the just come and take it all?

        • delirious_owl@discuss.online
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          4 days ago

          You should call the local police office ahead of time and tell them you’re going to operate an exit node. Then literally label everything so that when they come in the future, they know what to take. Like I said, its best to literally have this project in its own room. Like a closet. So its very clear which equipment is used for your exit node.

          Again, the Tor Project provides boilerplate letters for these things. Law enforcement usually thanks you. Remember, they use Tor too. Of course, most officers are dumb, but at least someone in their office should know about Tor at this point.

  • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    The police are stupid (how did they think they could catch any criminal by raiding an exit node operator? Did they manage to compromise TOR completely? Didn’t think so), and I hope the people of the NGO are alright.

    • hate2bme@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Even if it’s not they will definitely say how it was to stop cp or drug sales no matter what the reason was. People will always look the other way if they say that.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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    5 days ago

    People should be using tor just as Fuck U to the pigs.

    The entire regime relies on peasants not doing anything. Gonna be a generation or two but we will hit critical mass or will be enslaved.

    Your choice folks!

  • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    As annoying as it is not being able to really exit to a main internet from I2P, I think they have the right idea by not allowing exits. Though it does most definitely have an impact on how many people are able to use it.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      They have exits they are just not a part of the core project. I also like how the source code is hosted on i2p