French Police Looking To Ban Tor Network And Free Wi-Fi

France is proposing that it will ban free public Wi-Fi and anonymised browsing because of the Paris attacks, according to leaked documents.

On the other hand, criminalising and/or blocking Tor might affect many other legitimate users of the network, such as whistleblowers, journalists, and anyone else who wants to surf the Web privately.

However, the network has also been widely used for criminal purposes, such as operating contraband websites in the past, and it is increasingly being used by attackers to hide their identities as they scan for vulnerabilities or carry out attacks.

Alternatively, France could simply make it illegal to download and access Tor, which could result in ISPs having to spy on users and report anyone who accesses Tor to the police.

In police sights are the Tor anonymous communication service, which they want the power to ban or block in France, and secure Internet telephony apps, for which they want developers to provide them with the keys used to encrypt traffic.

The second measure addresses the blocking of the Tor network in an emergency. The reason for this is that the law enforcement find it very hard to trace and track suspects that use public WiFi hot spots such as those in cafés, shopping malls and other public places with high footfall. However, a total ban on the public using Tor is likely to be met with fierce resistance by civil rights and privacy advocates.

Given the fear environment prevailing in France, the authorities might not face any difficulties in passing the resolution but implementing both the proposals are a tough challenge.

As well as being potentially unlawful, blocking Tor is nearly certainly undoable, as users in China have demonstrated by using non-public entry nodes, or bridges, to help them evade government blacklisters.

According to the documents seen by Le Monde, the Interior Ministry’s Directorate of Public Freedoms and Legal Affairs notes that some of the proposals are not yet technically possible.

The two proposals, however, are still a long way from being enacted into law.

According to Le Monde, the new bills could be presented to the French parliament as early as January 2016.

While the merits of banning the usage of the Tor network can be understood, such a law would be a move against the online privacy and security of the average user.