Something to try out at work tomorrow.
A anonymous p2p proxy. Everyone who installs it can optionally be a server to someone else. Traffic is securely routed over your peers.
A good article about it.
It’s a lovely idea right up until the time that the police knock down your door and arrest you because your computer’s IP address has been logged accessing child-porn sites.
anonymity is overrated.
I am using a anonymizing proxy from to access instant messenger sides that have been blocked. Works like a dream, and you don’t have to act as a proxy yourself. But at least I can communicate with some people.
Oh, here is a link, written in Java, so works with all OS’s:
Oh, and more on the thoughtful side, I absolutely disagree with that. It is just that anonymity is just taken for granted in everyday life, that nobody seems to be able to value it right. If you go into a store to buy something, do you always show your passport, give them your address and fill out all sorts of questionaires? Well, at least, I don’t, and I like it that way.
On the other hand, in the internet, anonymity is not given, and everybody can find out what you did, your personal interests or habits, just by tracing your IP. That just does not sound right to me. And this is why those services have my full support.
I only go anonymous when I want to do something naughty 
Oh, and more on the thoughtful side, I absolutely disagree with that. It is just that anonymity is just taken for granted in everyday life, that nobody seems to be able to value it right. If you go into a store to buy something, do you always show your passport, give them your address and fill out all sorts of questionaires? Well, at least, I don’t, and I like it that way.
On the other hand, in the internet, anonymity is not given, and everybody can find out what you did, your personal interests or habits, just by tracing your IP. That just does not sound right to me. And this is why those services have my full support.[/quote]
I don’t think anyone would actually stoop to tracing your IP. I think people are too paranoid. But I might try that anonymity thing, just for kicks. Hoc nomen meum verum non est.
Hmm… I don’t think they can trace your IP and track you down just like that, even when you’re doing illegal stuff… I mean, right now I’m looking at some child porn and … hang on a minute, there’s somebody knocking at my door.
Of course they can do that, if the right people want to, no problem. If they bust that child porn server you are just looking at, there are log files with timestamps and IP adresses that accessed the server. It is no big deal to find out which telco company this IP belongs to. So they go there, asked which customer used that IP at that given time, and busted. Just like that. And now that all over the world laws are put in place to extend the time that those connection informations are stored, it makes things even easier.
And don’t get me wrong, I like that they can get those child molesters, but at what costs? Our freedom?
The price of freedom is constant vigilance!
EDIT:
And what if that child porn server also hosts a recipe side with your favourite Margharita recipe? Can somebody destinguish if you downloaded naughty pictures or harmless cocktail recipes?
These days, people like reporters and their sources, sometimes really need privacy. Remember Deep Throat?
And for the rest of us, 1984 is coming.
But we know who you are, you’re Gary.
[quote=“MaPoSquid”]It’s a lovely idea right up until the time that the police knock down your door and arrest you because your computer’s IP address has been logged accessing child-porn sites.[/quote]Yes, In the UK you are responsible for what goes through your computer. For example, if you set up a wireless network, leave it unsecure, down load some childporn and say someone else must have used your connection, you wouldn’t get away with it.
I’m really Toe Save. See how long I got away with it?
[quote=“ratlung”]
EDIT:
And what if that child porn server also hosts a recipe side with your favourite Margharita recipe? Can somebody destinguish if you downloaded naughty pictures or harmless cocktail recipes?[/quote]
The Feds won’t care. I used to work for a hosting company that was busted for hosting porn. They came in and almost shut down the entire data center operations center. It took a lot of dancing to prevent that from happening and luckily let the company offer up the offending servers that the Feds had tracked. Then they carted out the evidence.
It was very stressful, let me tell you…
[quote=“ratlung”]
And what if that child porn server also hosts a recipe side with your favourite Margharita recipe? Can somebody destinguish if you downloaded naughty pictures or harmless cocktail recipes?[/quote]
yes they can very easily. All this stuff is encrypted so they can see the information content.
In other news, earlier this year some researchers figured out how to fingerprint your computer. Every computer out there has a clock. They vary enough that they can be uniquely identified.
Someone that had the ability to watch internet traffic could figure when you connected to the net and from where. It’s easy enough for the right authorities or hackers to watch mail, web access, any traffic and know what computer is yours, and where you’re located. Once they identified your computer, unencrypted logins would match you to your computer.
Now they know when you login and from where.
The knowledge is out there. The Feds and China probably have enough infrastructure to add this. They probably doing it right now. Soon, they’ll know the net identity of everyone in China and when and where they use the net. And they know what you do on the net.
Encryption and anonymity doesn’t sound like a bad idea after all.
BTW, just in case anyone thought I was implying that the only reason someone would want to be anonymous is that the person must be doing something illegal – to clarify, what I meant was that your computer could end up being the last one on the chain that ends up doing the actual connection to an illegal/immoral/fattening/causescancerinrats site.
To relate a cautionary tale: someone I met here in Taiwan turned out to have gone to the same school and even to have worked in the same group as I did. One of my former coworkers from 20 years ago was still there as of when my new acquaintance was there, two or three years ago. Said new acquaintance told me that said former coworker got busted for possession of child pornography not long before said new acquaintance left our former employer and came here.
I find it nearly impossible to believe that the former coworker I used to play darts with in the break room turns out to have been a pervert. As I recall, he was married, stably employed, and so on and so forth – everything that would indicate he was just another guy trying to pay off his mortgage and have a nice quiet life. If that’s what one runs into when in a fairly normal public environment, who knows what sort of traffic will go through one’s computer when allowing anyone and everyone who is trying to hide their behavior to hide behind your network address.
Hehe. Fantastic. I just spat apple juice all over my keyboard. :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
g
[quote=“MaPoSquid”]BTW, just in case anyone thought I was implying that the only reason someone would want to be anonymous is that the person must be doing something illegal – to clarify, what I meant was that your computer could end up being the last one on the chain that ends up doing the actual connection to an illegal/immoral/fattening/causescancerinrats site.
[/quote]
The law is probably unclear about these things. At least the Tor, the Orion Network, is backed by the EFF. They will probably do everything they can to help out. They’re here to protect little us on the net.