CMU doesn&#x27;t need a warrant to scrape or transmit Tor traffic, and neither do you.<p>Intent will matter very much in this instance: If the FBI paid someone to do something for them that the FBI would need a warrant to do, then there&#x27;s a problem. The same would be true if a warrant-less sheriff paid a private investigator to eavesdrop on a suspect.<p>Otherwise, if, in the course of their research, no matter who funded them, CMU researchers found someone doing something illegal and reported it to the Man, that&#x27;s generally regarded as good citizenship. If, in the course of my research, I happen to unmask a bike-theft ring, you can be rather certain that I&#x27;ll call the cops.<p>Tor is a good invention that needs our support, but it isn&#x27;t a license to do illegal things.<p>Tor is, in many ways, an encrypted Twitter. You know that everyone can read what you send and some people will actively attempt to crack it. You bet <i>everything</i> on the encryption and network structure to avoid interception and localization. I don&#x27;t think there ought to be any inherent presumption of privacy attached to the protocol; to assume that there is one is to be exposed to any breach in the protocol&#x27;s design.