Hal Finney writes:
The data haven concept as I understood it held data for public access in some form (for sale or for free) which would be illegal in some jurisdiction. This might include credit information that was older than the legal limit, libelous claims, damaging medical records, etc. Frankly, I suspect that most usages would be directed towards reducing, rather than increasing, individual privacy. So this is not an area I am interested in working towards.
I believe the Data Haven started out as a Message Haven to get the effect of anon remailers with less traffic analysis hassles, so there would be no pseudonymous login or anything, you'd either download everything, or apply some filter (as with an alt.anon-messages group). However, the current discussion of glorified remote file systems makes no sense to me. If you can keep something encrypted on a remote site as an archive, you can do it at home. A data haven is more likely to get busted than your home PC; serious efforts (RF pickup of keystrokes/display) will be equally effective in either case. Here's a summary of data havens as I see them: Remote file system where people can anon/pseudonymously dump and read files - in the 'pure' variety there'd be no record of who posted/can read a file. Advantages: 1. Could hinder traffic analysis, if they did not have pseudonymous login in any form. 2. Could act as a store of encrypted data for those who can't/don't encrypt on their own systems 3. Could act as a backup OTOH: 1. Would depend on 'correct usage' ie download of enough irrelevant cover data, and would be vulnerable to analysis at the TCP/IP level. Newsgroups remain far better as means to evade traffic analysis 2. Don't keep all your encrypted BlackNet commodities in one basket - it can be busted more easily than your home machine. If you can encrypt there you can encrypt at home; if encryption is illegal at home, you can't legally access the havens. 3. Pfaugh! Rent space on Netcom. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rishab Aiyer Ghosh "In between the breaths is rishab@dxm.ernet.in the space where we live" rishab@arbornet.org - Lawrence Durrell Voice/Fax/Data +91 11 6853410 Voicemail +91 11 3760335 H 34C Saket, New Delhi 110017, INDIA