Ben
29th December 2007, 05:38 PM
The last few years have seen relentless destruction of our freedoms in the name of protecting us from terror, and it doesnt look like 2008 will be any different. The theory that demolishing civil liberties can make us safer is one that is flawed to all but the most devoid of brain cells, and future governments may well exploit their new power over us in ways men like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown never imagined.
There are a few projects on the net that aim to create real freedom online. This freedom often comes in various doses of anarchy, so be warned the two projects Im about to mention should be taken extremely seriously and, if you want to try either of them, you should research what they do and how they work first.
Tor: http://www.torproject.org/
Tor is a little like many such services that have gone before it. The project aims to create a peer to peer network that allows users to use the real Internet anonymously. It does this by routing a users traffic via other users on the network before sending it on to its destination.
The problem with Tor is that somebody somewhere has to be the gateway for your traffic. So somebodys IP address is going to end up in the logs of whatever service you connect to. Thats not so bad if youre just diving in to make use of the anonymous surfing, but Id certainly think twice about either running a relay or a gateway!
Freenet: http://freenetproject.org/
Freenet takes a completely different approach. It is, again, peer to peer, but this time theres no accessing normal web services. Every Freenet user runs a node on the network, and that node has a Store - the size of which you can choose. Your node stores bits of information that are passed around the network, making them available for other nodes to access.
Its all very complicated and clever, but the result is that theres no centralized store of any one piece of data. Everything is distributed over the network, meaning that you can put data onto Freenet, whole sites if you want, without hosting anything. Once somethings in Freenet it may remain there forever, provided that somebody requests it every once in a while. This entirely anonymous, entirely distributed system has created an anarchy of the first degree.
Anyway, for anybody interested in just how ideas and information might be exchanged online should the whole world go to hell then these two suggestions will get you started. Feel free to discuss the issues raised and projects mentioned, and others, here. Anyone wanting to dip their toes into Freenet (its quite a scary place ) and needs to exchange darknet references (do your homework) can PM me.
There are a few projects on the net that aim to create real freedom online. This freedom often comes in various doses of anarchy, so be warned the two projects Im about to mention should be taken extremely seriously and, if you want to try either of them, you should research what they do and how they work first.
Tor: http://www.torproject.org/
Tor is a little like many such services that have gone before it. The project aims to create a peer to peer network that allows users to use the real Internet anonymously. It does this by routing a users traffic via other users on the network before sending it on to its destination.
The problem with Tor is that somebody somewhere has to be the gateway for your traffic. So somebodys IP address is going to end up in the logs of whatever service you connect to. Thats not so bad if youre just diving in to make use of the anonymous surfing, but Id certainly think twice about either running a relay or a gateway!
Freenet: http://freenetproject.org/
Freenet takes a completely different approach. It is, again, peer to peer, but this time theres no accessing normal web services. Every Freenet user runs a node on the network, and that node has a Store - the size of which you can choose. Your node stores bits of information that are passed around the network, making them available for other nodes to access.
Its all very complicated and clever, but the result is that theres no centralized store of any one piece of data. Everything is distributed over the network, meaning that you can put data onto Freenet, whole sites if you want, without hosting anything. Once somethings in Freenet it may remain there forever, provided that somebody requests it every once in a while. This entirely anonymous, entirely distributed system has created an anarchy of the first degree.
Anyway, for anybody interested in just how ideas and information might be exchanged online should the whole world go to hell then these two suggestions will get you started. Feel free to discuss the issues raised and projects mentioned, and others, here. Anyone wanting to dip their toes into Freenet (its quite a scary place ) and needs to exchange darknet references (do your homework) can PM me.