Tor Developer Fears FBI Prosecution

Programmer Isis Agora Lovecruft , who is directly involved in the development of software for the Tor network, in her blog post, described in detail the trouble she had to deal with in connection with her work on an open source project.

Trouble began when her family was on vacation. Despite the fact that the FBI agent could easily find out that the family is not at home, searching for their names among the people who bought the plane tickets (the family flew away to the island resort), he did not do this, and came to their home when no one was at home.

FBI agent Mark Burnett left his business card with a request to call him, and for a while Isis Agora doubted whether to do this, especially since she was just in the process of moving to permanent residence in Germany. In the end, she asked her lawyer to take up the matter.
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The FBI agent explained to the lawyer that he just wanted to ask the girl a few questions, but at the same time only personally and without the presence of a lawyer. The girl did not call the FBI and make an appointment, but at the same time she began to worry about her move to another country - for example, if she could leave the United States at all, and if she would not be detained at the airport.

Finally, she decided to fly to Germany, no one stopped her, but after a couple of months her lawyer was called by another agent. He said that although the issues with certain documents on which they wanted to communicate with Lovecraft were clarified, the agency is currently deciding whether to issue a warrant in her name obliging her to meet with one of the agents. In this case, the agent stressed that he wants to talk with her personally, and if it works out - without the presence of her lawyer.

Lovecraft decided to hedge, and made public these events, especially due to the fact that the agents did not explain what case they wanted to communicate with her, and also because of their desire to do this without the participation of her lawyer. While in this situation, there are more questions than answers. Now the girl lives in Germany, is anxiously awaiting the development of events, and fears for her family remaining in the USA.

The programmer is already accustomed to the increased attention of government agencies to the Tor network, so her concerns can be understood. She kept a description of the situation from her blog in another place , in an archive with a cryptographic signature, and in addition, she constantly maintains a page with “ testimony of a canary ” about her receiving any warrants from government agencies relating to the Tor network, users and breeches.