Put in enough time, effort and resources and governments can crack Tor. But for most it's fine.
Isn't that the balance we want?
I think we all supported the idea that with sufficient safe guards, checks and balances, authorities should be able to spy on suspected criminals.
It's just when they decided to spy on the rest of us we took action.
I think this restores the balance (for now).
What do you think?
What happens when we're all suspected criminals in their eyes? Those wackos with Pixel phones, you know...
(I haven't watched the video yet.)
The point I was trying to make was that privacy has become an arms race.
We didn't have guaranteed privacy before the Internet, but we had checks and balances. If the authorities had good cause to suspect you of being a criminal they had the laborious task of applying to the courts for permission to access your bank records and tap your phone line.
What the video shows now, with privacy tools such as Tor (and NOSTR), we have removed the ability for the state to conduct mass surveillance, at least for those that engage with privacy tools.
It is still possible to surveil an individual, but it requires enormous effort and resources which forces the state to focus on a few individuals of "significant interest".
Alarms don't stop burglars, but they deter them from breaking into your house, forcing them instead to look for easier targets down the road.
So it is with privacy tools, they stop authorities from casually listening in.
