flickerSTICKS™ - http://www.flickersticks.org
The ULTIMATE in easy-to-use USB computer security.
Protect your job, your family, your business, your identity and your freedom with realtime USB encryption, anonymous USB web surfing, secure USB email, and portable USB virus/malware scanning, without leaving digital footprints.
January 2, 2008
The word “anonymous” comes from the Greek “anonymos,” meaning “without a name.” An obscure and ancient definition of the word is “without law.” And what more appropriate definitions could be used to characterize the modern “anonymizer”? Without name or law.
An Anonymizer is a software program designed to mask or protect the identity or identifiable information of an internet user who is using the web. In the case of anonymous e-mail, the anonymizer masks not only the identity or identifiable information about the sender, but can do the same for the recipient as well.
The internet has been called by some “the most comprehensive invisible surveillance network ever devised in the history of mankind”. It is a system in which government, law enforcement, business or even individuals can spy on and collect information about people or institutions without ever having to adhere to regulations or systems of checks. Intimate and intricate details of the public and private lives of individuals can be monitored, distributed and used without permission and without the victim's immediate knowledge. Even more frightening, this information can be collected by anyone.
And thus the birth and subsequent evolution of anonymizers. You can't throw a rock without hitting one...virtually speaking of course. www.secure-tunnel.com, www.anonymizer.com, www.the-cloak.com, www.hidemyass.com, www.mytrashmail.com, www.anonymous.to, www.willselfdestruct.com, www.anonymousspeech.com. And that's just to name a few.
The mechanisms of anonymous browsing and anonymous e-mail are similar. A proxy server acts as an intermediary between the user and the targeted website or email recipient. The server hides any identifiable information about the user including IP address, ISP and location from the targeted website or email recipient thus allowing the user/sender to operate with complete anonymity. In the case of anonymous email, the schemes can be rather complex including random delayed sending of email messages to make traffic analysis for the purpose of identifying users far more difficult, frequent deletion of server logs to ensure digital footprints don't fall into the wrong hands, chaining emails through multiple anonymous email servers to complicate tracing the originating path, and placing anonymous servers in countries immune to the laws of the user's governing country.
But can anonymizers be trusted to deliver what's being promised? Are anonymizers truly anonymous? One should bet that the demand for anonymity itself creates a presumption of “just cause” to monitor anonymous transmissions. After all, ethically speaking, if you have nothing to hide, why do you need to use an anonymous proxy server?
Furthermore, there's nothing more irresistible than snooping in on someone's private and intimate conversation. Thus, hacking an anonymous server is a “holy grail” for the hacking community, governments, law enforcement agencies and business. With such phenomenal interest in uncovering your secrets, the integrity of the anonymous server is always at risk. That is, assuming the legitimacy of the anonymous server in the first place.
Do you really know who's running the show and can you guarantee they're playing by the rules? Maybe the server is cooperating with government or law enforcement. Maybe the server is being operated by nefarious people exploiting the naive? Maybe the operators of the system are monitoring and mining your messages and traffic for sale to third parties. Maybe “anonymity” doesn't mean the same thing to the system operators as it does to you.
And think about this. Digital footprints are traceable. All electronic transmissions have an origin and destination. By using sniffers, spiders and crawlers to analyze traffic patterns it's not unreasonable to assume that inbound and outbound traffic can be traced.
And who has access to the data that passes through the server? The simple act of giving up control of your security to an unknown third party is in itself a compromise of your security. And, as we've seen with the events following 9-11, laws change fast and can be enforced retroactively. Your “perfectly legal” activities today might land you in jail tomorrow.
Should anonymizers exist? “Should” isn't relevant. The fact remains that they do exist. The question of whether anonymity has a role in society is a philosophical debate of ethics that can't be answered. Should people be empowered to conduct themselves without restraint or impunity under the cloak of anonymity on a globally reaching network? Is anonymity not an opportunity for abuse, where threats, harassment or abusive behavior can go unchecked? Is the preservation of basic human rights worth the risk of abuse that anonymity poses? What about the data itself? Who owns it? How long is it stored for? How and where is it stored?
There are many questions and few answers. Regardless of your personal beliefs, history has shown that anonymity permits people to comment and report on government, law and business without fear for their lives or safety. In today's ever changing world where security seems to be the call of the day, it appears that the ethical issues of anonymity are quickly being overshadowed by a desperate need for anonymity. We are supposed to have the right to free speech, but if that free speech comes with retaliation we are not really free.
This article was produced by flickerSTICKS™
© Copyright 2008 flickerWORKS™ Inc. | All Rights Reserved
You may copy and redistribute this article providing you do not change its content and you leave all links referring to http://www.flickersticks.org intact.