First Library to Support Anonymous Internet Browsing Effort Stops After DHS Email

[friendly_iconoclast]

https://www.propublica.org/article/library-support-anonymous-internet-browsing-effort-stops-after-dhs-email

A library in a small New Hampshire town started to help Internet users around the world surf anonymously using Tor. Until the Department of Homeland Security raised a red flag.

by Julia Angwin
ProPublica, Sep. 10, 2015, 11:20 a.m.

...In July, the Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was the first library in the country to become part of the anonymous Web surfing service Tor. The library allowed Tor users around the world to bounce their Internet traffic through the library, thus masking users’ locations.

Soon after state authorities received an email about it from an agent at the Department of Homeland Security.

“The Department of Homeland Security got in touch with our Police Department,” said Sean Fleming, the library director of the Lebanon Public Libraries.

After a meeting at which local police and city officials discussed how Tor could be exploited by criminals, the library pulled the plug on the project...

So much for "Live Free or Die"...

[Hydra]

1. I've often wondered when the "Big Brother" axe was going to come down

Hi Agent Mike!

How are the cheetos treating you this evening?

[Fearless]

2. Everyone is a criminal when you're trying

Desperately to cling to power.

[geek tragedy]

3. Having embezzlers, child porn peddlers, and terrorists

using their server probably wasn't so appealing.

[friendly_iconoclast]

4. UPDATE: The library board voted, and the Tor node is back on

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11681473

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/09/small-town-library-restores-tor-relay-which-had-gone-dark-for-weeks/

Library’s Tor relay—which had been pulled after feds noticed—now restored

The New Hampshire library, which last week took down a Tor relay after federal authorities read about it on Ars, has finally restored its important link in the anonymizing network.

The node was turned back on Tuesday evening immediately after the board of the Kilton Public Library in Lebanon voted to do so...

...As Ars reported earlier, the goal of the Library Freedom Project is to set up Tor exit relays in as many of these ubiquitous public institutions as possible. As of now, only about 1,000 exit relays exist worldwide. If this plan is successful, it could vastly increase the scope and speed of the famed anonymizing network. For now, Kilton has a middle relay but has plans to convert it to an exit relay. A middle relay passes traffic to another relay before departing the Tor network on the exit relay.

A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent first learned of the plan after reading Ars’ July 30 article and then forwarded it on as a heads-up to a local police officer on the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children task force. That, in turn, led to a meeting between local law enforcement, city officials, and the library. (HSI is the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security.)