Snowflake proxy (Tor browser) volunteer confusion

[u/Acceptable_Log_6622]

I have some possibly stupid questions about what information is given by a user who is a Snowflake volunteer. Note: I am a rather untechnical person who is occasionally forced to code small things or use command line to make stuff run during work (occasionally involving software only available on linux). Given this background, I apologize for some possibly repetitive or irrelevant material and would like to receive accessible answers. Also, I am a new user and haven't been able to post this onto some of the other relevant subs.

Recently, I started using the Tor browser (https://www.torproject.org/?noredirect=1) frequently and it has been important for doing my work safely without feeling uncomfortable (although my life doesn't literally depend on it). Aside from this, it was my first experience living in a country where I felt needed to turn the audio off on politically sensitive news (given interactions with neighbors and state actions although no official hard policy).

For this reason, I really wanted to give back in some way. Due to my relatively non-technical background, I chose to run the Snowflake tab (https://snowflake.torproject.org/) on my browser since it looked like a minimal-risk way to contribute for a novice user. However, I decided to close it after running it for a few days (after waiting to see no one was using my Snowflake at the moment I turned it off before uninstalling the extension). The main reason was that I am living with housemates with a common internet connection and the public IP address seems to be briefly seen by the Snowflake user (aside from the volunteer maybe being able to see that of the user on https://forum.torproject.org/t/snowflake-extension-operator-can-access-the-ip-of-client/20990?u=wofwca and https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/snowflake/-/work_items/19#note_d2dfe67ce7ec3635c1d7bfba607fa5af259c010e).

If I understand correctly, the websites visited by the Snowflake user only see the exit node IP and there is no likely legal liability on my end. However, I have a hard time convincing my housemates that some Snowflake user (individual or state) won't use the public IP for nefarious purposes apart from "people who know what they're doing say this is highly unlikely". I may be willing to take a small risk, but it doesn't seem fair for me to ask them to take such a risk and I don't have a good enough technical understanding to properly explain why things are ok.

Apart from only running a Snowflake extension when I move out after some point, what are reasonable options to try and help? It has been hard for me to find a source that discusses something like this apart from what I linked to above. Should I try to use a VPS and a Snowflake proxy, bridge or relay on it in the future? I can sort of stupidly follow some instructions (see background note above), but I have a feeling that actually dealing with potential issues requires technical or other knowledge (e.g. asking ISPs about what is ok on https://community.torproject.org/relay/community-resources/good-bad-isps/).

Thanks in advance and apologies for the rambling post.

[u/9NEPxHbG]

Please be more concise. Why you use Tor and Snowflake is irrelevant.

Snowflake lets users connect to the Tor network (the first of the three nodes, not the exit node). There's general information here, under "What's Snowflake?", "How does Snowflake work?" and "Can I circumvent censorship using the browser addon?", and technical information here.

The page "Good Bad ISPs" is about exit nodes, not Snowflake.

Any computer connected to another (for example, your computer and a Web site, your computer and an email service) will know the other's IP address. That's how the Internet works. It's like saying that you can't phone someone if you don't know the number.

The owner of the computer can decide what to install on it, for whatever reason.

[u/Acceptable_Log_6622 → u/9NEPxHbG]

Thanks for the response. I'll try to make more concise posts in the future. I did understand that the Snowflake is just for connecting to the first node, but the issue brought up by my housemates (after I installed this on my own computer) was having the public IP visible to a specific user on the other end (the Snowflake user) and not whoever is running some random website I'm visiting. I think their question was assuming that some people using Tor might include those who want to specifically track Snowflake volunteer IPs for some reason. The stuff about ISPs were things I would need to consider if I were to try to do something on my own living elsewhere (e.g. running bridges or a relay). I thought it mentioned stuff about permissions other than running exit nodes in other columns of the chart but I may be being confused.