Even if you aren't a criminal, the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you. This is what they're designed to do, the designers of these systems will openly admit to it. You can make your own judgement on whether you're ok with that, but it doesn't help to deny what's actually happening.
>the fact is that privacy tools of this nature are explicitly relying on having enough volume of criminals and other illicit users to provide cover for you
No, that's not how this works. You don't need criminal activity to provide you with anonymity. You just need ANY other activity in order to get lost in the crowd[1].
Your flawed view is that nobody should have privacy because some bad guys might use privacy to do bad things. Privacy advocates are the opposite. We say everybody deserves privacy as a human right, even if on occasion some bad guys take advantage of the privacy.
>You just need ANY other activity in order to get lost in the crowd
And that's irrelevant because these tools are explicitly built for criminals to use them. I'm actually quoting what the designers of these systems have said, this isn't my opinion. When you say "ANY other activity" that also means criminal activity gets lumped in there, I don't know why you're denying this. You're probably not a criminal but if you're using this then you're intentionally making criminals your company and you will pay for the effects of that in one way or another. That's the part where I'm speaking to you from experience. You just can't make an anonymized system like this that also isn't a lucrative target for criminals, such a thing doesn't exist. Is it unfortunate for those who aren't criminals and actually need privacy? Absolutely, but this is the reality of the situation. There's no easy solution. If someone is telling you that this isn't an issue then they're just lying to you, get mad at them instead of me.
>Your flawed view is that nobody should have privacy because some bad guys might use privacy to do bad things.
No, this also isn't even remotely close to what my actual view is. You just blatantly made this up for no reason. Why are you doing this?
This is yet another reason that it's so exhausting to talk about this, not only are you spreading misinformation about this project but you're also spreading misinformation about me. Misinformation and disinformation is actually incredibly common in these low-trust environments. If you think it's bad, I agree, it's actually incredibly shameful that some people try to use "privacy" as a cover to spread misinformation, but that's something else that you have to accept and deal with and insulate yourself from if you take this route. Please do a better job in the future and don't bring yourself down to this level of empty rhetoric. You're letting the liars and criminals win.
If you're acting this way because you see this route as some kind of moral outlet, I would suggest that you stop and find another one. This one is ethically gray and if you stick with it, you'll be peer pressured into excusing a lot of things that you're probably not comfortable with in the name of "privacy" at the expense of everything else. The moral rationalizations coming from these projects are strong, but are ultimately willful blind spots informed by money-making and capitalism just like everything else. Don't say that nobody warned you.
