Are shopkeepers required to take down the name and keep a mugshot of everyone who visits their shop in order to help law enforcement? Are the proprietors of any building one might visit required to do so, including those with home security cameras?
You are implying that by not keeping records of all events you are involved with you are intentionally hindering law enforcement, implying that we are morally and legally bound to gather and retain information which helps law enforcement.
Does that make clearing browser history a deliberate attempt to hinder law enforcement?
Internet cafe's wipe the computers after every session. Is that intentionally hindering law enforcement?
I think it's about whether the expectation to log is within reason. Though that is of course subjective.
The difference between your examples and logging proxy access is that logging proxy access is the standard behavior (for proxies which aren't tor).
Tor proxies deliberately decide to behave in a non-standard manner. And with what tor is about, it is clear that this is not for technical reasons but for hindering law enforcement.
I will claim that if the tor project did not openly intend to make government surveillance more difficult, it would have implemented logging long ago.
But that's just a claim, not a fact. Maybe I'm wrong.
>it is clear that this is not for technical reasons but for hindering law enforcement.
Aren't there valid reasons for people not to conceal or anonymize their communications, such as whistleblowers, journalists, or people needing to hide their communications from oppressive governments?
On the issue of clearing browser history are you aware that the FBI threatened a boy for clearing his browser history under laws intended for destruction of corporate documents and communications?
> Aren't there valid reasons for people not to conceal or anonymize their communications, such as whistleblowers, journalists, or people needing to hide their communications from oppressive governments?
Keeping logs doesn't help other goverments. Other governments cannot access your logs. Your government can access your logs. You are protecting them from your government. You may claim that your government is oppressive. But that doesn't change that you are hindering the enforcement of their (oppressive) laws.
Regarding the moral question: I agree that there are cases where hindering your own government's law enforcement may make sense.
Regarding tor, I mostly take issue with the concept of onion services. If you want to publish USA government secrets, you can publish them on Russian servers. If you want to publish Russian government secrets, you can publish them on American servers, etc. The sole purpose of onion services is to publish content which is illegal in every country on earth. I can't think of many good things that are ollegal in every country on earth.
You are implying that by not keeping records of all events you are involved with you are intentionally hindering law enforcement, implying that we are morally and legally bound to gather and retain information which helps law enforcement.
Does that make clearing browser history a deliberate attempt to hinder law enforcement?
Internet cafe's wipe the computers after every session. Is that intentionally hindering law enforcement?