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The second annual Arab Bloggers Workshop [1] is currently taking place in Beirut, Lebanon (see other blog posts here [2]); the Workshop consists of various presentations and smaller workshops on topics ranging from “Arab techies” to online campaigns to anonymity and circumvention technologies. Today, Jacob Appelbaum (@ioerror [3] on Twitter) of Tor [4] gave a presentation on how to select the right circumvention tool, as well as specific information on the project for which he works.
Appelbaum explained how Tor works with a presentation which clearly illustrated a Tor bridge (to find out more info on Tor, see here [5]), as well as what kind of information Tor tracks, and the history of the Tor project. During the workshop, participants live-tweeted information from the presentation.
weddady noted [6] the lack of safety in some proxies:
weddady quotes Jacob Appelbaum
Appelbaum explained further that with proxies, one never actually knows who is running the proxy, thus creating a potential risk of surveillance.
Amira Al Hussaini noted [7] on Twitter that Tor is not widely used in the Middle East, and relays Appelbaum's call for users:
Amira Al Hussaini attended Jacob Appelbaum's presentation on Tor
Tor can be downloaded here [8], and more information can be found here [9].