Tor Developer Says She is Being Stalked by FBI – Releases Evidence

Lead software developer for the Tor Project, Isis Agora Lovecruft has just released evidence showing how on several instances the FBI has harassed her. On multiple occasions the FBI has repeatedly tried to call her, have left business cards inside the front door of her home and have even reached out to several of her relatives. On Friday, March 6th, she wrote an extensive blog post chronicling the whole ordeal.

Ms. Lovecruft has no desire to meet or make contact with the FBI, and to this day, has no notion of what they actually want to speak to her about. She hired a lawyer, who’s name has not yet been released, to speak on her behalf, but apparently the FBI had no interest in complying, specifically telling her lawyer “I don’t believe you actually represent her” and that “if we [FBI] happen to run into her on the street, we’re gonna’ be asking her some questions without you present.” Going on to add that they “simply want to ask her a few questions,” but never stated what these questions are, nor what they pertain to.

Lovecruft said she was so distraught over the situation that she would be afraid to leave her house for weeks on end. Soon enough the pressure became so great, that she decided to leave the country and relocate to Germany – far outside the FBI’s jurisdiction. Her blog post points out how she was unsure if this was even a possibility, fearing the FBI might have put her on a no fly list. But despite her concerns, she was free to leave the country and lives in Germany to this day.

However, as she mentions, the harassment has yet to stop. On several instances the FBI continues to leave messages with her lawyer. In their most recent voicemail, the FBI goes on the threaten her with a subpoena. The transcript of the voicemail reads “She should meet with one of our agents in San Francisco to talk. Otherwise, are you the point of contact for serving a subpoena? She’s not the target of investigation, but, uh… we uh… need her to clear up her involvement or… uh… potential involvement in a matter.”

A subpoena would force Lovecruft to meet with the FBI under penalty of law. If she is served and doesn’t show, then an arrest warrant will be made in her name. This means if she ever entered the United States again she would be immediately detained, perhaps even extradited from Germany directly.  This subpoena would almost certainly come with a gag order, meaning she could not discuss any of these matters with the public. Consequentially, this is exactly why she released her blog post, sharing her story with the press before she can be silenced by the FBI.

Lovecruft goes on to beg the question “Is this really how the United States has decided to treat American tech workers? Am I just the forerunner in a larger campaign by the FBI to personally go after developers of encryption software which annoys them?”

It is no secret that the FBI has waged a war on encryption, in recent months. A recent bill introduced by the Senate essentially makes end to end encryption illegal within the United States. Furthermore, due to their success in court against Apple, the FBI has proclaimed it will continue to use the court system to end encryption rights. The Tor Project is front and center in a legal battle between the federal government and the privacy rights of its citizens. In the wake of recent verdicts, the Tor Project has announced that if a court forces them to overturn their encryption protocol, they will abandon and close the project altogether, rather then submit to the government. All signs indicate we may indeed be heading in this direction – unfortunately.

Sources: Softpedia, TechWorm

This article (Tor Developer Says She Is Being Stalked by FBI – Releases Evidence) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article using a creative commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.   You can join in with the conversations at www.anonboards.com.