The Tor network is one of the most popular tools among Internet users who want to hide their identities.
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While this is an understandable means of clamping down and snuffing out future terror threats it will come as a source of some alarm to the public as it could see public wi-fi disappearing for months after French legislation extended the state of emergency to three months.
Following the leak, the French Department of Civil Liberties and Legal Affairs has questioned whether banning Tor services would be in violation of the country’s constitution.
The highly reactionary moves may prove hard to actually enforce, for instance, using the default settings in the Tor browser allows anyone monitoring your connection such as ISPs to see that you are connecting to the Tor network as the IP addresses are publicly listed.
The main problem with such a ban on Tor is that it wouldn’t achieve a whole lot.
However, proposing a total ban on Tor is easier said than done, as it would require technical blocks on every internet service provider, internet exchange and worldwide gateway.
Would-be terrorists could still access Tor from outside the country, and if they manage to access Tor from within France I doubt they’re concerned about being arrested for illegal use of the network.
The TOR network – which shot to prominence in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations – is used by those seeking to maintain privacy online, ranging from journalists and whistleblowers to terrorists and paedophiles.
Given the fear environment prevailing in France, the authorities might not face any difficulties in passing the resolution but implementing both the proposals are a tough challenge. China attempted to do it by blocking access nodes, but there are workarounds to this measure.
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But that’s still not enough for police authorities lobbying for still greater powers to be included in two further bills, one relating to the state of emergency and one to antiterrorism measures, that could be voted into law from January, according to Le Monde. The claims were made in the French newspaper Le Monde who cited documents from the Ministry of the Interior.
