>. Tor does not prevent Google from scanning your emails or recording your search history. Tor does not prevent Google from tracking your location via your Android phone, creating and saving a detailed day by day map of where you go and what you do. Tor works to an extent. If you an individual trying to hide from the NSA or the FBI or the FSB, Tor might give you some measure of protection — if you are very technically savvy — but it is a limited sort of protection. It does not protect users against corporate surveillance. But it does provide a false sense of privacy. That is why Silicon Valley companies like Google and Facebook support Tor: it sells a version of privacy — privacy from the government — that does threaten their own surveillance business models.
Most people that use TOR use either TBB (the TOR Browser Bundle) or Tails, or somethign similar. TOR is a core feature in the package but much more is needed to have some semblance of security.
Levine's argument is equivalent to saying SSL doesn't provide security, or door locks don't provide security, because they don't secure against every type of attack.
Not defending the article, but this particular argument makes a point that needs to be heard. There are people who think they are safe from surveillance and detection because they use Tor, not realizing where the actual failure points for their internet security really reside.
Most people that use TOR use either TBB (the TOR Browser Bundle) or Tails, or somethign similar. TOR is a core feature in the package but much more is needed to have some semblance of security.
Levine's argument is equivalent to saying SSL doesn't provide security, or door locks don't provide security, because they don't secure against every type of attack.
What a terrible article.