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en/faq-abuse.wml   5) #include "head.wmi" TITLE="Abuse FAQ" CHARSET="UTF-8"

faq-abuse.html     6) 

abuse.html         7) <div class="main-column">
abuse.html         8) 

faq-abuse.html     9) <!-- PUT CONTENT AFTER THIS TAG -->
faq-abuse.html    10) 

en/faq-abuse.wml  11) <h2>Abuse FAQ</h2>

en/faq-abuse.wml  12) <!-- BEGIN SIDEBAR -->
en/faq-abuse.wml  13) <div class="sidebar-left">
en/faq-abuse.wml  14) <h3>Questions</h3>
en/faq-abuse.wml  15) <ul>
en/faq-abuse.wml  16) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#WhatAboutCriminals">Doesn't Tor enable criminals to do bad things?</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  17) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#DDoS">What about distributed denial of service attacks?</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  18) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#WhatAboutSpammers">What about spammers?</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  19) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#HowMuchAbuse">Does Tor get much abuse?</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  20) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#TypicalAbuses">So what should I expect if I run an exit relay?</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  21) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#IrcBans">Tor is banned from the IRC network I want to use.</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  22) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#SMTPBans">Your nodes are banned from the mail server I want to use.</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  23) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#Bans">I want to ban the Tor network from my service.</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  24) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#TracingUsers">I have a compelling reason to trace a Tor user. Can you help?</a></li>

en/faq-abuse.wml  25) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#RemoveContent">I want some content removed from a .onion address.</a></li>

en/faq-abuse.wml  26) <li><a href="<page faq-abuse>#LegalQuestions">I have legal questions about Tor abuse.</a></li>
en/faq-abuse.wml  27) </ul>
en/faq-abuse.wml  28) </div>
en/faq-abuse.wml  29) <!-- END SIDEBAR -->

faq-abuse.html    30) <hr />
faq-abuse.html    31) 

faq-abuse.html    32) <a id="WhatAboutCriminals"></a>
faq-abuse.html    33) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhatAboutCriminals">Doesn't Tor enable criminals to do bad things?</a></h3>

abuse.html        34) 

faq-abuse.html    35) <p>Criminals can already do bad things. Since they're willing to
faq-abuse.html    36) break laws, they already have lots of options available that provide
faq-abuse.html    37) <em>better</em> privacy than Tor provides. They can steal cell phones,
faq-abuse.html    38) use them, and throw them in a ditch; they can crack into computers
faq-abuse.html    39) in Korea or Brazil and use them to launch abusive activities; they

faq-abuse.html    40) can use spyware, viruses, and other techniques to take control of
faq-abuse.html    41) literally millions of Windows machines around the world. </p>

abuse.html        42) 

faq-abuse.html    43) <p>Tor aims to provide protection for ordinary people who want to follow

en/faq-abuse.wml  44) the law. Only criminals have privacy right now, and we need to fix that. </p>

faq-abuse.html    45) 

faq-abuse.html    46) <p>Some advocates of anonymity explain that it's just a tradeoff &mdash;

en/faq-abuse.wml  47) accepting the bad uses for the good ones — but there's more to it
en/faq-abuse.wml  48) than that.

faq-abuse.html    49) Criminals and other bad people have the motivation to learn how to

faq-abuse.html    50) get good anonymity, and many have the motivation to pay well to achieve
faq-abuse.html    51) it. Being able to steal and reuse the identities of innocent victims
faq-abuse.html    52) (identify theft) makes it even easier. Normal people, on the other hand,

en/faq-abuse.wml  53) don't have the time or money to spend figuring out how to get

faq-abuse.html    54) privacy online. This is the worst of all possible worlds. </p>
faq-abuse.html    55) 
faq-abuse.html    56) <p>So yes, criminals could in theory use Tor, but they already have
faq-abuse.html    57) better options, and it seems unlikely that taking Tor away from the
faq-abuse.html    58) world will stop them from doing their bad things. At the same time, Tor
faq-abuse.html    59) and other privacy measures can <em>fight</em> identity theft, physical
faq-abuse.html    60) crimes like stalking, and so on. </p>
faq-abuse.html    61) 

en/faq-abuse.wml  62) <!--
en/faq-abuse.wml  63) <a id="Pervasive"></a>
en/faq-abuse.wml  64) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Pervasive">If the whole world starts using
en/faq-abuse.wml  65) Tor, won't civilization collapse?</a></h3>
en/faq-abuse.wml  66) -->
en/faq-abuse.wml  67) 

faq-abuse.html    68) <a id="DDoS"></a>
faq-abuse.html    69) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#DDoS">What about distributed denial of service attacks?</a></h3>

abuse.html        70) 

faq-abuse.html    71) <p>Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks typically rely on having a group

faq-abuse.html    72) of thousands of computers all sending floods of traffic to a victim. Since
faq-abuse.html    73) the goal is to overpower the bandwidth of the victim, they typically send
faq-abuse.html    74) UDP packets since those don't require handshakes or coordination. </p>
faq-abuse.html    75) 

faq-abuse.html    76) <p>But because Tor only transports correctly formed TCP streams, not

faq-abuse.html    77) all IP packets, you cannot send UDP packets over Tor. (You can't do
faq-abuse.html    78) specialized forms of this attack like SYN flooding either.) So ordinary
faq-abuse.html    79) DDoS attacks are not possible over Tor. Tor also doesn't allow bandwidth
faq-abuse.html    80) amplification attacks against external sites: you need to send in a byte

faq-abuse.html    81) for every byte that the Tor network will send to your destination. So

faq-abuse.html    82) in general, attackers who control enough bandwidth to launch an effective
faq-abuse.html    83) DDoS attack can do it just fine without Tor. </p>
faq-abuse.html    84) 

faq-abuse.html    85) <a id="WhatAboutSpammers"></a>
faq-abuse.html    86) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#WhatAboutSpammers">What about spammers?</a></h3>

abuse.html        87) 

faq-abuse.html    88) <p>First of all, the default Tor exit policy rejects all outgoing

faq-abuse.html    89) port 25 (SMTP) traffic. So sending spam mail through Tor isn't going to

en/faq-abuse.wml  90) work by default. It's possible that some relay operators will enable

faq-abuse.html    91) port 25 on their particular exit node, in which case that computer will
faq-abuse.html    92) allow outgoing mails; but that individual could just set up an open mail

faq-abuse.html    93) relay too, independent of Tor. In short, Tor isn't useful for spamming,

en/faq-abuse.wml  94) because nearly all Tor relays refuse to deliver the mail. </p>

faq-abuse.html    95) 

faq-abuse.html    96) <p>Of course, it's not all about delivering the mail. Spammers can use

faq-abuse.html    97) Tor to connect to open HTTP proxies (and from there to SMTP servers); to
faq-abuse.html    98) connect to badly written mail-sending CGI scripts; and to control their
faq-abuse.html    99) botnets — that is, to covertly communicate with armies of
faq-abuse.html   100) compromised computers that deliver the spam.

faq-abuse.html   101) </p>
faq-abuse.html   102) 

faq-abuse.html   103) <p>
faq-abuse.html   104) This is a shame, but notice that spammers are already doing great
faq-abuse.html   105) without Tor. Also, remember that many of their more subtle communication
faq-abuse.html   106) mechanisms (like spoofed UDP packets) can't be used over Tor, because
faq-abuse.html   107) it only transports correctly-formed TCP connections.
faq-abuse.html   108) </p>

abuse.html       109) 

faq-abuse.html   110) <a id="ExitPolicies"></a>
faq-abuse.html   111) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#ExitPolicies">How do Tor exit policies work?</a></h3>

abuse.html       112) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 113) <p>

en/faq-abuse.wml 114) <a href="<page faq>#ExitPolicies">Moved to the new FAQ page</a>

en/faq-abuse.wml 115) </p>

abuse.html       116) 

faq-abuse.html   117) <a id="HowMuchAbuse"></a>
faq-abuse.html   118) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#HowMuchAbuse">Does Tor get much abuse?</a></h3>

abuse.html       119) 

faq-abuse.html   120) <p>Not much, in the grand scheme of things. We've been running the network
faq-abuse.html   121) since October 2003, and it's only generated a handful of complaints. Of
faq-abuse.html   122) course, like all privacy-oriented networks on the net, we attract our
faq-abuse.html   123) share of jerks. Tor's exit policies help separate the role of "willing
faq-abuse.html   124) to donate resources to the network" from the role of "willing to deal

faq-abuse.html   125) with exit abuse complaints," so we hope our network is more sustainable

faq-abuse.html   126) than past attempts at anonymity networks. </p>

abuse.html       127) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 128) <p>Since Tor has
en/faq-abuse.wml 129) <a href="<page overview>">many good uses as

faq-abuse.html   130) well</a>, we feel that we're doing pretty well at striking a balance
faq-abuse.html   131) currently. </p>
faq-abuse.html   132) 

faq-abuse.html   133) <a id="TypicalAbuses"></a>

en/faq-abuse.wml 134) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TypicalAbuses">So what should I expect if I run an exit relay?</a></h3>

abuse.html       135) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 136) <p>If you run a Tor relay that allows exit connections (such as the

faq-abuse.html   137) default exit policy), it's probably safe to say that you will eventually

faq-abuse.html   138) hear from somebody. Abuse

faq-abuse.html   139) complaints may come in a variety of forms. For example: </p>

abuse.html       140) <ul>

faq-abuse.html   141) <li>Somebody connects to Hotmail, and sends a ransom note to a

faq-abuse.html   142) company. The

en/faq-abuse.wml 143) FBI sends you a polite email, you explain that you run a Tor relay,

faq-abuse.html   144) and they say "oh well" and leave you alone. [Port 80]</li>
faq-abuse.html   145) <li>Somebody tries to get you shut down by using Tor to connect to Google
faq-abuse.html   146) groups and post spam to Usenet, and then sends an angry mail to

faq-abuse.html   147) your ISP about how you're destroying the world. [Port 80]</li>

faq-abuse.html   148) <li>Somebody connects to an IRC network and makes a nuisance of

faq-abuse.html   149) himself. Your ISP gets polite mail about how your computer has been

faq-abuse.html   150) compromised; and/or your computer gets DDoSed. [Port 6667]</li>

faq-abuse.html   151) <li>Somebody uses Tor to download a Vin Diesel movie, and

en/faq-abuse.wml 152) your ISP gets a DMCA takedown notice. See EFF's

en/faq-abuse.wml 153) <a href="<page eff/tor-dmca-response>">Tor DMCA Response

en/faq-abuse.wml 154) Template</a>, which explains why your ISP can probably ignore

faq-abuse.html   155) the notice without any liability. [Arbitrary ports]</li>

abuse.html       156) </ul>

faq-abuse.html   157) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 158) <p>You might also find that your Tor relay's IP is blocked from accessing

faq-abuse.html   159) some Internet sites/services. This might happen regardless of your exit
faq-abuse.html   160) policy, because some groups don't seem to know or care that Tor has
faq-abuse.html   161) exit policies. (If you have a spare IP not used for other activities,

en/faq-abuse.wml 162) you might consider running your Tor relay on it.) For example, </p>

faq-abuse.html   163) 

abuse.html       164) <ul>

faq-abuse.html   165) <li>Because of a few cases of anonymous jerks messing with its web

en/faq-abuse.wml 166) pages, Wikipedia is currently blocking many Tor relay IPs from writing

faq-abuse.html   167) (reading still works). We're talking to Wikipedia about how they might
faq-abuse.html   168) control abuse while still providing access to anonymous contributors,
faq-abuse.html   169) who often have hot news or inside info on a topic but don't want to risk
faq-abuse.html   170) revealing their identities when publishing it (or don't want to reveal
faq-abuse.html   171) to local observers that they're accessing Wikipedia). Slashdot is also
faq-abuse.html   172) in the same boat.</li>

en/faq-abuse.wml 173) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 174) <li>SORBS is putting some Tor relay IPs on their email

faq-abuse.html   175) blacklist as well. They do this because they passively detect whether your

en/faq-abuse.wml 176) relay connects to certain IRC networks, and they conclude from this that
en/faq-abuse.wml 177) your relay is capable of spamming. We tried to work with

en/faq-abuse.wml 178) them to teach them that not all software works this way,
en/faq-abuse.wml 179) but we have given up. We recommend you avoid them, and <a
en/faq-abuse.wml 180) href="http://paulgraham.com/spamhausblacklist.html">teach your friends
en/faq-abuse.wml 181) (if they use them) to avoid abusive blacklists too</a>.</li>
en/faq-abuse.wml 182) 

abuse.html       183) </ul>
abuse.html       184) 

faq-abuse.html   185) <a id="IrcBans"></a>
faq-abuse.html   186) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#IrcBans">Tor is banned from the IRC network I want to use.</a></h3>

abuse.html       187) 

faq-abuse.html   188) <p>Sometimes jerks make use of Tor to troll IRC channels. This abuse
faq-abuse.html   189) results in IP-specific temporary bans ("klines" in IRC lingo), as the
faq-abuse.html   190) network operators try to keep the troll off of their network. </p>
faq-abuse.html   191) 
faq-abuse.html   192) <p>This response underscores a fundamental flaw in IRC's security model:
faq-abuse.html   193) they assume that IP addresses equate to humans, and by banning the

faq-abuse.html   194) IP address they can ban the human. In reality this is not the case —

faq-abuse.html   195) many such trolls routinely make use of the literally millions of open
faq-abuse.html   196) proxies and compromised computers around the Internet. The IRC networks
faq-abuse.html   197) are fighting a losing battle of trying to block all these nodes,
faq-abuse.html   198) and an entire cottage industry of blacklists and counter-trolls has
faq-abuse.html   199) sprung up based on this flawed security model (not unlike the antivirus
faq-abuse.html   200) industry). The Tor network is just a drop in the bucket here. </p>
faq-abuse.html   201) 
faq-abuse.html   202) <p>On the other hand, from the viewpoint of IRC server operators, security
faq-abuse.html   203) is not an all-or-nothing thing.  By responding quickly to trolls or
faq-abuse.html   204) any other social attack, it may be possible to make the attack scenario
faq-abuse.html   205) less attractive to the attacker.  And most individual IP addresses do
faq-abuse.html   206) equate to individual humans, on any given IRC network at any given time.
faq-abuse.html   207) The exceptions include NAT gateways which may be allocated access as
faq-abuse.html   208) special cases. While it's a losing battle to try to stop the use of open
faq-abuse.html   209) proxies, it's not generally a losing battle to keep klining a single
faq-abuse.html   210) ill-behaved IRC user until that user gets bored and goes away. </p>
faq-abuse.html   211) 
faq-abuse.html   212) <p>But the real answer is to implement application-level auth systems,
faq-abuse.html   213) to let in well-behaving users and keep out badly-behaving users. This
faq-abuse.html   214) needs to be based on some property of the human (such as a password he
faq-abuse.html   215) knows), not some property of the way his packets are transported. </p>
faq-abuse.html   216) 
faq-abuse.html   217) <p>Of course, not all IRC networks are trying to ban Tor nodes. After
faq-abuse.html   218) all, quite a few people use Tor to IRC in privacy in order to carry
faq-abuse.html   219) on legitimate communications without tying them to their real-world
faq-abuse.html   220) identity. Each IRC network needs to decide for itself if blocking a few
faq-abuse.html   221) more of the millions of IPs that bad people can use is worth losing the
faq-abuse.html   222) contributions from the well-behaved Tor users. </p>
faq-abuse.html   223) 
faq-abuse.html   224) <p>If you're being blocked, have a discussion with the network operators
faq-abuse.html   225) and explain the issues to them. They may not be aware of the existence of
faq-abuse.html   226) Tor at all, or they may not be aware that the hostnames they're klining
faq-abuse.html   227) are Tor exit nodes.  If you explain the problem, and they conclude that
faq-abuse.html   228) Tor ought to be blocked, you may want to consider moving to a network that
faq-abuse.html   229) is more open to free speech.  Maybe inviting them to #tor on irc.oftc.net

faq-abuse.html   230) will help show them that we are not all evil people. </p>

faq-abuse.html   231) 

faq-abuse.html   232) <p>Finally, if you become aware of an IRC network that seems to be

faq-abuse.html   233) blocking Tor, or a single Tor exit node, please put that information on <a

en/faq-abuse.wml 234) href="<wiki>BlockingIrc">The Tor IRC block tracker</a>

faq-abuse.html   235) so that others can share.  At least one IRC network consults that page

faq-abuse.html   236) to unblock exit nodes that have been blocked inadvertently. </p>

abuse.html       237) 

faq-abuse.html   238) <a id="SMTPBans"></a>
faq-abuse.html   239) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#SMTPBans">Your nodes are banned from the mail server I want to use.</a></h3>

abuse.html       240) 

faq-abuse.html   241) <p>Even though <a href="#WhatAboutSpammers">Tor isn't useful for
faq-abuse.html   242) spamming</a>, some over-zealous blacklisters seem to think that all

faq-abuse.html   243) open networks like Tor are evil — they attempt to strong-arm network

faq-abuse.html   244) administrators on policy, service, and routing issues, and then extract

faq-abuse.html   245) ransoms from victims. </p>
faq-abuse.html   246) 
faq-abuse.html   247) <p>If your server administrators decide to make use of these

faq-abuse.html   248) blacklists to refuse incoming mail, you should have a conversation with

faq-abuse.html   249) them and explain about Tor and Tor's exit policies. </p>

abuse.html       250) 

faq-abuse.html   251) <a id="Bans"></a>
faq-abuse.html   252) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#Bans">I want to ban the Tor network from my service.</a></h3>

abuse.html       253) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 254) <p>We're sorry to hear that. There are some situations where it makes
en/faq-abuse.wml 255) sense to block anonymous users for an Internet service. But in many
en/faq-abuse.wml 256) cases, there are easier solutions that can solve your problem while
en/faq-abuse.wml 257) still allowing users to access your website securely.</p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 258) 

faq-abuse.html   259) <p>First, ask yourself if there's a way to do application-level decisions
faq-abuse.html   260) to separate the legitimate users from the jerks. For example, you might
faq-abuse.html   261) have certain areas of the site, or certain privileges like posting,

en/faq-abuse.wml 262) available only to people who are registered. It's easy to build an
en/faq-abuse.wml 263) up-to-date list of Tor IP addresses that allow connections to your
en/faq-abuse.wml 264) service, so you could set up this distinction only for Tor users. This
en/faq-abuse.wml 265) way you can have multi-tiered access and not have to ban every aspect
en/faq-abuse.wml 266) of your service. </p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 267) 
en/faq-abuse.wml 268) <p>For example, the <a
en/faq-abuse.wml 269) href="http://freenode.net/policy.shtml#tor">Freenode IRC network</a>
en/faq-abuse.wml 270) had a problem with a coordinated group of abusers joining channels and
en/faq-abuse.wml 271) subtly taking over the conversation; but when they labelled all users
en/faq-abuse.wml 272) coming from Tor nodes as "anonymous users," removing the ability of the
en/faq-abuse.wml 273) abusers to blend in, the abusers moved back to using their open proxies
en/faq-abuse.wml 274) and bot networks. </p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 275) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 276) <p>Second, consider that hundreds of thousands of
en/faq-abuse.wml 277) people use Tor every day simply for

en/faq-abuse.wml 278) good data hygiene — for example, to protect against data-gathering
en/faq-abuse.wml 279) advertising companies while going about their normal activities. Others
en/faq-abuse.wml 280) use Tor because it's their only way to get past restrictive local
en/faq-abuse.wml 281) firewalls. Some Tor users may be legitimately connecting

faq-abuse.html   282) to your service right now to carry on normal activities. You need to
faq-abuse.html   283) decide whether banning the Tor network is worth losing the contributions

en/faq-abuse.wml 284) of these users, as well as potential future legitimate users. (Often
en/faq-abuse.wml 285) people don't have a good measure of how many polite Tor users are
en/faq-abuse.wml 286) connecting to their service — you never notice them until there's
en/faq-abuse.wml 287) an impolite one.)</p>

faq-abuse.html   288) 

faq-abuse.html   289) <p>At this point, you should also ask yourself what you do about other
faq-abuse.html   290) services that aggregate many users behind a few IP addresses. Tor is
faq-abuse.html   291) not so different from AOL in this respect.</p>
faq-abuse.html   292) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 293) <p>Lastly, please remember that Tor relays have <a

en/faq-abuse.wml 294) href="<page faq>#ExitPolicies">individual exit policies</a>. Many Tor relays do

en/faq-abuse.wml 295) not allow exiting connections at all. Many of those that do allow some
en/faq-abuse.wml 296) exit connections might already disallow connections to

faq-abuse.html   297) your service. When you go about banning nodes, you should parse the
faq-abuse.html   298) exit policies and only block the ones that allow these connections;
faq-abuse.html   299) and you should keep in mind that exit policies can change (as well as

en/faq-abuse.wml 300) the overall list of nodes in the network).</p>

faq-abuse.html   301) 

faq-abuse.html   302) <p>If you really want to do this, we provide a

en/faq-abuse.wml 303) <a href="https://check.torproject.org/cgi-bin/TorBulkExitList.py">Tor
en/faq-abuse.wml 304) exit relay list</a> or a
en/faq-abuse.wml 305) <a href="<page tordnsel/index>">DNS-based list you can query</a>.

faq-abuse.html   306) </p>

faq-abuse.html   307) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 308) <p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 309) (Some system administrators block ranges of IP addresses because of
en/faq-abuse.wml 310) official policy or some abuse pattern, but some have also asked about
en/faq-abuse.wml 311) whitelisting Tor exit relays because they want to permit access to their

en/faq-abuse.wml 312) systems only using Tor. These scripts are usable for whitelisting as well.)

en/faq-abuse.wml 313) </p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 314) 

faq-abuse.html   315) <a id="TracingUsers"></a>
faq-abuse.html   316) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#TracingUsers">I have a compelling reason to trace a Tor user. Can you help?</a></h3>
faq-abuse.html   317) 
faq-abuse.html   318) <p>
faq-abuse.html   319) There is nothing the Tor developers can do to trace Tor users. The same
faq-abuse.html   320) protections that keep bad people from breaking Tor's anonymity also
faq-abuse.html   321) prevent us from figuring out what's going on.
faq-abuse.html   322) </p>
faq-abuse.html   323) 
faq-abuse.html   324) <p>
faq-abuse.html   325) Some fans have suggested that we redesign Tor to include a <a

en/faq-abuse.wml 326) href="<page faq>#Backdoor">backdoor</a>.

faq-abuse.html   327) There are two problems with this idea. First, it technically weakens the
faq-abuse.html   328) system too far. Having a central way to link users to their activities
faq-abuse.html   329) is a gaping hole for all sorts of attackers; and the policy mechanisms
faq-abuse.html   330) needed to ensure correct handling of this responsibility are enormous
faq-abuse.html   331) and unsolved. Second, the bad people <a href="#WhatAboutCriminals">aren't
faq-abuse.html   332) going to get caught by this anyway</a>, since they will use other means
faq-abuse.html   333) to ensure their anonymity (identity theft, compromising computers and
faq-abuse.html   334) using them as bounce points, etc).
faq-abuse.html   335) </p>
faq-abuse.html   336) 
faq-abuse.html   337) <p>
faq-abuse.html   338) But remember that this doesn't mean that Tor is invulnerable. Traditional
faq-abuse.html   339) police techniques can still be very effective against Tor, such as
faq-abuse.html   340) interviewing suspects, surveillance and keyboard taps, writing style
faq-abuse.html   341) analysis, sting operations, and other physical investigations.
faq-abuse.html   342) </p>
faq-abuse.html   343) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 344) <a id="RemoveContent"></a>
en/faq-abuse.wml 345) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#RemoveContent">I want some content removed from a .onion address.</a></h3>

en/faq-abuse.wml 346) <p>The Tor Project does not host, control, nor have the ability to
en/faq-abuse.wml 347) discover the owner or location of a .onion address.  The .onion address is

en/faq-abuse.wml 348) an address from <a href="<page hidden-services>">a hidden

en/faq-abuse.wml 349) service</a>.  The name you see ending in .onion is a hidden service descriptor.
en/faq-abuse.wml 350) It's an automatically generated name which can be located on any Tor
en/faq-abuse.wml 351) relay or client anywhere on the Internet.  Hidden services are designed
en/faq-abuse.wml 352) to protect both the user and service provider from discovering who they
en/faq-abuse.wml 353) are and where they are from.  The design of hidden services means the
en/faq-abuse.wml 354) owner and location of the .onion site is hidden even from us.</p>
en/faq-abuse.wml 355) <p>But remember that this doesn't mean that hidden services are
en/faq-abuse.wml 356) invulnerable. Traditional police techniques can still be very effective
en/faq-abuse.wml 357) against them, such as interviewing suspects, surveillance and keyboard
en/faq-abuse.wml 358) taps, writing style analysis, sting operations, and other physical
en/faq-abuse.wml 359) investigations.</p>

en/faq-abuse.wml 360) <p>If you have a complaint about child pornography, you may wish to report
en/faq-abuse.wml 361) it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which serves
en/faq-abuse.wml 362) as a national coordination point for investigation of child pornography:
en/faq-abuse.wml 363) <a href="http://www.missingkids.com/">http://www.missingkids.com/</a>.
en/faq-abuse.wml 364) We do not view links you report.</p>

en/faq-abuse.wml 365) 

faq-abuse.html   366) <a id="LegalQuestions"></a>
faq-abuse.html   367) <h3><a class="anchor" href="#LegalQuestions">I have legal questions about Tor abuse.</a></h3>

abuse.html       368) 

faq-abuse.html   369) <p>We're only the developers. We can answer technical questions, but
faq-abuse.html   370) we're not the ones to talk to about legal questions or concerns. </p>
faq-abuse.html   371) 

en/faq-abuse.wml 372) <p>Please take a look at the

en/faq-abuse.wml 373) <a href="<page eff/tor-legal-faq>">Tor Legal FAQ</a>,

faq-abuse.html   374) and contact EFF directly if you have any further legal questions. </p>

abuse.html       375) 

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