The Pirate Bay's new censorship-dodging browser 'not secure'

The Pirate Bay has released a bundle of add-ons to help people search for and access bits of the internet that governments and ISPs have locked away. The only hitch is: despite the fact that it contains a Tor client, security experts have said that it doesn't completely anonymise internet traffic. This has raised concerns …

[Anonymous Coward]

If people want something for nothing, they'll find or make a way to get it!

I've noticed that with every torrent site blocked, at least half a dozen proxy sites have sprung up to support them, not that I've been looking specifically of course.

[tojb]

Re: If people want something for nothing, they'll find or make a way to get it!

Au contraire, internet censorship can and has been made to work.

By "work" I mean seriously obstruct totally innocent daily internet use for millions of people.

Down with the jackbooted oppressors!

[Mark Broadhurst]

Internet against TPB ?

This is the first time in recent memory that TPB have done something promotional like this and had the internet rather than the authorities blow up in their face.

I hope its not the beginning of the end.

[Anonymous Coward]

PirateBrowser is a bundle package of the Tor client (Vidalia), FireFox Portable browser (with foxyproxy addon) and some custom configs that allows you to circumvent censorship that certain countries such as Iran, North Korea, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Italy and Ireland impose onto their citizens.

Good to see the UK at the top of a league table... oh maybe not this one mind :s

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, TPB is blocked due to a court order.

But it got Cameron and others thinking and we'll soon see everything from Porn to magic banned unless you opt in (but the ability to opt in will be killed at some point too).

[Tomato42]

Oh, I assure you that all the site blocking in Iran, China and so on is the result of either court orders or application of the letter of the law.

It's still direct result of immoral degenerates in power.

[mark l 2]

it doesn't appear as though TPB as advertising this as a secure browser bundle but as an alternative way to get around ISP blocks on websites rather than using a proxy or vpn, so its not advisable to use it if you are planning on bringing down the government but to search for the latest Hollywood tat on TPB it probably as safe as any other browser not using TOR.

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems secure enought for my needs. Have no intention of using this for anything other than finding downloads.

Anyone stupid enough to for trust this with log in details for email or anything financial deserves everything they get.

To grab a magnet link from a blocked site to drop in my seedbox without firing up my proxy well then this will do. Assuming of course this isnt too slow to use or a resource hog the way firefox is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya think?

No doubt this will land more pirates in prison.

[TheBeardyMan]

Truth in advertising

So, the essence of this story is "Web browser advertised as not anonymous is in fact not anonymous". However, I suspect that "Wow, truth in advertising" isn't the sense in which the editors are expecting us to find this newsworthy.

[Old Handle]

I don't see anything wrong with this. The Tor Project has said in the past that although it was designed for anonymity originally, they're aware that many people use it for censorship circumvention as well. And it says right there on the download page that it's not anonymous.

I would think a more serious concern would be whether it puts excessive stress on the Tor network. But so far nothing about that has been mentioned, so I assume that isn't an issue.

[Richard Wharram]

It won't put excessive stress on the Tor network as only the TPB website and the .torrent files will be going over Tor. The media downloads will be unaffected.

[Anonymous Coward]

Eh?

But surely the Pirate Bay is blocked for the people the package is intended for?

[dogged]

Re: Eh?

Yes. But the download site isn't hosted on TPB and therefore is reachable. For now.

Since this is firefox, you can also install Adblock+ on it and NoScript if you choose to do so. Which is just as well given the browser-jacking ads that infest TPB.

[ShellShockeD]

you would have thought a working link to the browser would have been present in the articale to be shared amoungst thoughs you have no desire to be constantly updating the shortcuts for

:O(

but hey i am capable of getting round the blocks with a little help from google so finding a working link to the browser download page is a pice of cake

:O)

this is not about being hidden on the net it about unhiding things the courts and isp's say you can not have the torrent packets can come the normal way

[Anonymous Coward]

If people insist...

...on pirating, there is a reserved room for them at the Iron Bar Hotel. Enjoy the stay.

[Killraven]

Re: If people insist...

Really? We've seen a few trials based on getting some money, in the form of fines, out of file-sharers. You know somebody that's actually been locked up for downloading?

[TheCraigE]

Where's the story?

They have advertised this specifically as something that *does not make you annonymous*

It's to *circumvent filters*. It's *not illegal* to browse the filtered sites in the UK, just certain ISP have been barred from serving them. In what way would using this application to visit a website blocked by your ISP be cause for concern - unless you were ignoring what it was designed for and thinking it was making you annonymous.

I'm a BT user, and I *couldn't give a fuck* if BT and the Gov knew I was visiting sites like TPB, but it's made slightly difficult by my ISP, and I can use this tool to get around the annoyance - with the same level (or slightly less?) exposure than if I was doing it on a smaller ISP or on BT 6 months ago...

[Anonymous Coward]

When you quote something from Twatter

Why #do you @always @#have !to ^^*&use ##those @stupid $¥mßols in$Front of ##every fucking @@###word.

Kind of makes reading difficult.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Do you know any people who can't access TPB or other torrent sites because they are blocked?"

Er, no.

I don't.

[MArnold]

So it's kind of like an in-between to a regular browser, and the tor browser. Seems like there might be some issues with it not being anonymous though. Worries me a bit. I use the torch browser to get past geographical restrictions, but getting around government restrictions is a bit more, and if I'm to do that, I think it best to be anonymous. Great play though for the anti-censorship side!

[Dennis Wilson]

Confused......

Why produce an add-on to a browser so that it can bypass state lockouts of websites when the browser can do it without the add-on anyway?