Secure drop - securing freedom of the press

[viking60]

The press needs information - especially from whistleblowers - to keep up their important function as the Fourth Estate.

The critical view on the established power structures is of the essence and a main task for the press.

The "established power" is building up structures to manifest their own control, and controlling the press is wanted to inform the public in "the right way". Every government - everywhere - will claim the moral high ground that will justify why they are particularly entitled to such control.

As we have seen; it is almost impossible for whistleblowers to inform the press anonymously when the government wants to keep the dirty laundry hidden. If it is embarrassing to the government; the whistleblowers will be hunted and treated as the worst criminals - always in the name of national security.

To make them look bad; some "loyal press" comes in handy and is even vital to establish the right sentiment in the population.

Needless to say; this poses some challenges to the freedom of the press. This freedom is first and foremost the freedom to be critical to the government.

In comes Secure drop

This is a whistleblower submission system that uses the Tor Network to deliver information to the press anonymously.

The sites cannot be reached by normal browsers - you will need the Tor Browser.

The Norwegian broadcaster NRK is using the system and you can deliver information at this address:

http://nrktipspgpsyoqwo.onion/

This address can only be reached via the Tor Browser.

As we have seen before the Tor users are particularly targeted by state agencies so it is not enough to simply use your regular hardware to drop the information.
This has probably already been mapped and stored in the "potential terrorist" list of the agencies.

To make sure you should borrow a computer and go to an internet cafe to deliver your information to the press with secure drop.

..and don't use your regular internet cafe because "regulars" there may be registered.

Paranoid you say?

Snowden and Assange might disagree.....

[R_Head]

Everytime I see and/or hear Tor this pops in my mind; a huge Gov Co honeypot. NGOs are legal and covert money laundering operations.

The core principle of Tor, "onion routing", was developed in the mid-1990s by United States Naval Research Laboratory employees, mathematician Paul Syverson and computer scientists Michael G. Reedand David Goldschlag, with the purpose of protecting U.S. intelligence communications online. Onion routing was further developed by DARPA in 1997.

In December 2006, Dingledine, Mathewson and five others founded The Tor Project, a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) research-education nonprofit organization responsible for maintaining Tor. The EFF acted as The Tor Project's fiscal sponsor in its early years, and early financial supporters of The Tor Project included the U.S. International Broadcasting Bureau, Internews, Human Rights Watch, the University of Cambridge, Google, and Netherlands-based Stichting NLnet.

From this period onwards, the majority of funding sources came from the U.S. government.

[viking60]

Yup
They only started hating it after others started to use it.

Our governments do keep a list over all people that has visited the Tor sites and other private network sites though so ironically:

The more you are interested in privacy the less you will have

I agree with Ronald Reagan:
The most feared words in the world are:

I am from the government and I am here to help you!