We'll get into the nitty details later, but these are the Rules I've set for myself:
- Refrain from routing normal traffic through it
- Never do anything illegal (more later as it's a grey area)
- Never put sensitive files on it (financial info, love notes, court docs)
- Be as transparent as possible that I'm running an exit
- If I get complaints from The Olde ISP (or university), I use this template.
Law enforcement and prospective employers who mine your social media presence for data are often worse than thieves who salivate when you announce on Twitter you'll be out of town for two weeks. Thieves, while unsavory and criminally deviant to be sure, rarely profess to be just. And thieves, as stated before, come in all shapes and sizes. If they take your private data without asking you first, that's stealing.
Employers can be the worst of the lot, as hypocritical as Harvey Two-Face, demanding transparency in your life but not their own. Make an inflamed political post or drink wine on vacation in Bora Bora with half-naked Filipinas twirling fire sticks and you could lose your job... or be denied one. Not kidding.
Mention you use Tor and you may hear your interviewer ask:
"I noticed you're a big fan of Tor. Could you elaborate on why you need to use an anonymizing service? We like transparency in our employees."
Yes, I was actually asked this in an interview for a position that handled a lot of money. It came out of nowhere, but what really bothered me was the casual way it was asked, like every applicant should have something to hide if they desire anonymous communications. Maybe I was some rabid fan of Jason Bourne and up to no good. At any rate, they did not like my answer.
"Because I value freedom."
Any intelligence agency has unlimited funding to kill freedom by censoring all of us - even censoring the freedom to buy what you want to buy. With the media in their back pocket they can conjure any boogeyman they want to run over you. It's not illegal for them to lie to you, but it is for you to lie to them.
This hypocrisy costs them nothing but costs you everything, so like them, you must keep on top of changes to good security, updating as necessary and being on constant alert of new zero-day threats.
One thing though: when you have not one but two or three silver bullets to take down a werewolf, the better your chances of staying invisible to any other lycans roaming around out there. Mind you, I'm not prejudiced against those with Lycanthropy, as it is no laughing matter. But then neither is herd mentality.
Tor and the Dark Art of Anonymity: How to Be Invisible from NSA Spying by Lance Henderson, English, May 16, 2015, ISBN: 1512049581
