Did anyone else watch the Horizon programme last night on attempts to circumvent government and corporate surveillance of the internet, Inside the Dark Web ?
I thought it was fascinating, not least in tracing the way in which the Tor network by which members are able to become "anonymous" internet users was actually developed by the US government but has been used to leak secrets of that government, e.g. with Wikileaks and Edward Snowden's revelations. The programme was good at highlighting the benefits of this anonymous system e.g. at countering repressive surveillance in places like Iran or China, as well as the dark, criminal side of it, e.g. money-laundering, paedophile networks etc. Whatever one's views of the merits of Tor, the issue of internet privacy (and whether it is possible) is certain to remain one of increasing significance as the technology available to governments and corporations becomes more sophisticated.
There is a taster of some of the issues considered in this article:
I thought it was fascinating, not least in tracing the way in which the Tor network by which members are able to become "anonymous" internet users was actually developed by the US government but has been used to leak secrets of that government, e.g. with Wikileaks and Edward Snowden's revelations. The programme was good at highlighting the benefits of this anonymous system e.g. at countering repressive surveillance in places like Iran or China, as well as the dark, criminal side of it, e.g. money-laundering, paedophile networks etc. Whatever one's views of the merits of Tor, the issue of internet privacy (and whether it is possible) is certain to remain one of increasing significance as the technology available to governments and corporations becomes more sophisticated.
There is a taster of some of the issues considered in this article:
- but, if I download any of these from the Internet ...
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