Re:Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network
by mdewinter on Saturday December 20, 2014 @05:39AM
(#8776330)
Do note that XS4ALL is owned by KPN, which is a monolith like Comcast or Verizon. If the authorities come knocking hard enough, KPN will make sure it it shut down, or worde. XS4ALL is a good provider, I enjoy my IPv6 and fiber to home very much, service is good, they still provide a shell server which I use for IRC, I like them
I do however have my doubts about KPN...
Re:Possible upcoming attempts to disable the Tor network
by stingraycharles on Saturday December 20, 2014 @07:28AM
(#8776491)
Sad as it might be, I have to agree with you. Upon acquisition, KPN said it will let XS4ALL be as independent as possible, and as far as I can tell, they put their money where their mouth is (let them fight court battles, where KPN (the ISP) does not), but if there is little legal room for XS4ALL to move in, KPN will make sure XS4ALL complies.
On the other hand, XS4ALL is always looking for the boundaries of privacy and free speech -- if there is no more (legal) room left, and as such have reached the boundary, I have no doubt they would comply. But they probably make a big stunt out of it again, using it as a marketing opportunity, which KPN, of course, will have no problems with. As long as they comply with the law.
For what it's worth, XS4ALL has a tremendous reputation when it comes to privacy in The Netherlands, being one of the first ISPs in NL, founded by true hackers. They were the first (and only one?) that started disclosing how many subpoenas they were receiving from the government, have fought a lot against blocking TPB in court, etc -- I'm not surprised at all they are the ones hosting the Tor servers (I am a customer, and am allowed to run an Exit node, and they are very supportive when they receive abuse complaints, their entire customer support staff knows about Tor). I would be surprised if they would easily cave to a government order / seizure of their servers.