DHS Uses Local Law Enforcement To Shut Down Tor Access For Library Patrons

Earlier this year, the Library Freedom Project launched an initiative to test the use of Tor exit relays in local libraries as a means of helping library patrons browse the internet annonymously. As the LFP noted To begin this new project, we needed a pilot, and we had just the library in mind – Kilton Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, one of two Lebanon Libraries. Chuck McAndrew is the IT librarian there, and he’s done amazing things to the computers on his network, like running them all on GNU/Linux distributions. Why is this significant? Most library environments run Microsoft Windows, and we know that Microsoft participated in the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program. By choosing GNU/Linux operating systems and installing some privacy-protecting browser extensions too, Chuck’s helping his staff and patrons opt-out of pervasive government and corporate surveillance. Pretty awesome. At least it was awesome until the Department of Homeland Security got wind of the project. As Julia Angwin of ProPublica reports today 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 P...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs