Justification - Why Anonymity?

Are the religious, cultural historical propaganda still valuable? Or are they stuck in the emotional remnants? Is the idea of right or wrong still valid? Or is the idea of right or wrong substituted into the idea of priority?

Perhaps, the reason for the conflict can be justified, but no one can agree to the solution that ends the conflict. At the same time, the historical or religious values are losing its point in the other side of the world due to the technological advances. Most of them are more exposed to the information infrastructure – they communicate faster – new ideas come up every other second – instead of the value judgment over the idea that weather it’s right or wrong, the agents on the net collectively organize the structure to create priority. The structure of organization is not vertical hierarchy, but horizontally connected.

The physical segregation by the extreme security measures in the area causes the pockets of information that can’t flow – which leads to the discrepancy of information over same area. The possession of more or less information creates clear controlling hierarchy structure. The profiling system makes it harder for the freedom of expression. The communication hardly occurs in this discontinuous environment.

At the same time, the strict profiling policy makes it harder to achieve individual freedom. Based upon religion and nationality, the residence of the West Bank area are already tagged and categorized to be treated in certain way. Not only that, but also the fact that each side is segregated, yet bonding together within their own group based upon the imposed strong propaganda makes it impossible to have freedom of communication and expression.

It is true that the level of emergency and insecurity of the region requires the transparency from its members. However, are they ready for it? Isn't total transparency will cause another controlling measure that becomes restriction? Plus, if the transparency is not imposed fairly, it will only creates another vertical hierarchy in the region.

Instead of transparency, I want to propose anonymous network channel within the region that can go beyond the wall. The anonymous network channel will be designed to contribute to achieve equivalency of the information to the West Bank area. By not requiring individual profile data, it guarantees the freedom of expression and exchange of the information. At the same time, by storing the data from both side, the anonymous network somehow gains a role inside of the community as a new monument that does not carry any specific propaganda.

Invisible power and control

The cause of the conflict in Jerusalem is obvious, yet very complex – it is total mixture of the accumulated historical, religious and cultural conflict caused by different point of view. Because of the duration of the conflict and the historical contents of the cause of conflict, it is hard to trace back and make decision over who’s right and who’s wrong. Knowing that, the decision making or proposal of the solution is being avoided.

Between two polemic groups of Jerusalem and especially West Bank, the hierarchy of the power structure is pretty clear - One side has total control over the other. Yet, to avoid the responsibility of making smart decision over the problem, the controlling power decided to be invisible to the one they are controlling - to make sure that they guarantee the right to have separate political party and religious / cultural views. At the same time, to make clear that they have the control, layers of security policy are imposed over the social, cultural and infra - structure. The examples are the followings - barriers, checkpoints, ID.


As I posted below, at the terminal checkpoint, Israeli decided to hide behind the one-sided mirror. By being invisible, they are anonymous, but the power structure is clear. Barriers are another example of the effort being made to be invisible to the other side. The construction of the barriers are progressed rapidly in last two years, and almost near completion. The physical separation between east Jerusalem and West Bank, and Israeli vs. Palestinian area is now clear. However, the layout of the barrier is somewhat funny - the literal effort of creating the division between Israeli and Palestinian created the isolation of the city.


The different types of ID are another imposed security layer on top of the physical structure. The West Bank residents, Jerusalem Palestinians and Israeli have possess different types of ID that clarifies different types of personal profile, which eventually entitles them into different categories - means more or less control based upon who you are.


The checkpoints are the physical location where these control measures are enforced. The checkpoints are not necessarily high tech - they are haphazardly made physical structure, but the social impact of them are well designed. Checkpoints are the one that stops the movement inside of the West Bank area by forbidding the access to the Israeli reserved road that divides the towns from each other.

Allenby Bridge Terminal - Anonynous Surveillence

The power structure of surveillance in the Israeli controlled territory of West Bank is reflecting the current situation between Israeli and Palestinians. To avoid the conflict yet to make the borderline between the one controls and the one being controlled, Israeli security force would be invisible to the Palestinians during their action.

According to the description in the Article X, Israeli security agents would be separated from travelers by one-way mirrors even though they are all over the terminal building. The travel documents of Palestinians were to be checked by an Israeli officer who also checks their identity indirectly in an invisible manner. (Eyal Weizman, Hollow Land)

Within the terminal, the Palestinian officers guide several security checks, but the overall provision is done by the Israeli securities behind the mirror. This is due to the Oslo Accords - Palestinians are still under Israeli security domination, but encouraged to believe their own political authority.

The one-way mirror represents the political gesture of Israeli security control in the west bank territory. To make sure that they are encouraging or not enforcing the political authority, but not to lose the territorial control, they choose to be invisible. Yet, they are still looking over what is happening inside, either to maintain overall control or protect themselves from the possibilities of the uprising terrorism / attack.

Palestinians are being observed by anonymous force. They are required to provide their personal profile to the anonymous security personnel. Are they even sure that the one who goes over their travel documents are human or monkey? With the one-way mirror, it is impossible.

Anonymity and mass crowd

To stop the Israeli attack in Gaza area, one of the interesting tactics from the Palestinian is building a human shield: gather together as a bigger crowd when the attack is about to happen. The crowd is a mixture of the militant leaders to school girls. The action of gathering as a mass crowd deterred several Israeli air force attack since it can cause civilian casualty. (BBC News)

For me, this is one of the example of the idea of anonymity in the context of Israel - Palestine conflict. By gathering as a one big crowd, individual profiles blend into a bigger entity, the Palestinians. It gets hard to recognize who is causing the trouble and who is innocent. The individual anonymity is achieved by this action, and eventually prevents the adversary attack.

In anonymous networking system, the nodes are grouped together to lower the possibility to find clear target. If the group is bigger, it is better. It is hard to find who is doing illegal activities in the group even though the activity is coming out of the group. It is also unfair to accuse whole group as guilty because innocent individuals are involved and it is not fair. Mostly, the effort to find the target goes back to zero. The Palestinian movement of gathering together as a mass crowd to stop the Israeli attack is the physical representation of this idea in different context.

More Anonymities

Terrorism
By not claiming their responsibility over the event of terror, the terrorist group can create the sense of horror to their target group, and avoid counter attack. 22.8 percent of Israeli - Palestinian terrorism occurred between 1994 to 1999 time period are anonymous.

Underground Economy
Most of the underground economy chooses to be anonymous to avoid taxation from the government. The market not only includes illegal commerce (i.g. drugs, prostitutions, firearms, copyrighted media, etc.) but also legal service because of the benefit of not paying tax. Cash is preferred in underground economy because it is not easy to track.

Suicide group
Anonymous suicide is recent social phenomenon in developed Asian countries. Mostly formed over the internet, the victims exchange their information while staying anonymous. By belonging to the crowd, the individual victims are less recognizable and gains more confidence for suicide. The anonymity prevents them to be found by authority before the occurrence of suicide, but also protect the privacy of the members and their social life while they stay alive.

Homeless
Homeless are the one that are out of existing system. By being invisible to the system, they become anonymous to the society either voluntarily or involuntarily. By being out of system, homeless get out of the social responsibilities that are required from the location they reside.

Most Wanted
Most wanted fugitives from certain societies can be seen as physically anonymous because of their invisibility to the authority. By staying invisible and physically anonymous, they can delay the accusation from the authority while accomplishing their interests.

Pasquinade
Pasquinade is an anonymous lampoon. It obtained double meaning when people started to post anonymous satire to criticize their unhappiness over pope or the government.

Graffiti
If formal art is the one that has clear profile, graffiti is a type of art that stays anonymous in a way. The observer of the graffiti does not get the formal presentation of the artist or art. The artist like Bansky or Invader are anonymous but created their presence by repeating the similar style of art and getting recognized.

First federalist paper
Federalist paper is one of the iconic example of anonymity. The paper was published anonymously to avoid political oppression. The influence of the federalist paper to the constitution made the anonymity to be guaranteed as citizen’s right.

Anonymous Voting
In democracy, the degree of being anonymous in the voting system is important to achieve the fairness.

Bansky and Invader | Cultural Anonymity

Unlike formal art, the street art scenes including graffiti is anonymous. While blended in the urban fabric, the street art approaches observer by being itself, only with its content without letting people know who is the artist. In case of Bansky and Invader, the repetition of the similar style created the strong identity for the art itself, again, without the emphasis on the author.

Profile Experiment | Tor

I downloaded and installed Tor, the anonymous networking program. Unlike other programs, Tor asks the minimum amount of personal information, since it is not important and necessary. The website says the individual usage of Tor is to avoid tracking system from the websites. It is quite different from my understanding of Freehaven, the precedent of Tor - According to my research, Freehaven requires to contribute storage space as a server to store the information. Maybe it is different when I run my own server.


One of the interesting feature in the software bundle is 'Tor Network Map', which shows the physical location of the servers on the global map. Again, I am not really sure how much of anonymity is achieved when the information of location is released, especially aided by graphics.

What I need to do to hide myself in the network is to figure out Hidden Service. Without that, even though Tor is running, I am not really using or participating inside of the network. This is the message I got.


I am still getting used to the interface. One of my concern is whether I can run a server from school network or not, since they are tracking my daily use of network.

Some new thoughts

It is definitely getting harder and harder to get out of the system (i mean, mostly authoritarian system like politics and economics) because the survival of self is getting challenged. The movie code 46 shows the obvious comparison between being inside and outside of the system. Since it is more technology dominated society than even now, most of the individual profiles are kept in the record, and their traces are tracked. When an individual deny to provide the information to the system, he or she is losing the right to participate inside of the system.
The living outside of the system requires a person give up lots of things that a civilization offers. There is no production going on outside, means that there's no job. There's no protection or law. Most of the rule is based upon survival of each individual, but the self organization is not successful since most of them are pretty emotional. It can get tired and dangerous outside of the system.

What is the benefit of being outside, or invisible to the system? The control from the system requires its members to give up certain part of their freedom. Achieving pure freedom and free will is impossible. Here's the question then. What is priority of the value? The ability to achieve pure freedom under the challenged environment, or compromise some of the freedom to acquire the full access to the benefit from the system? Is anarchy a model that can substitute the idea of system?

The benefit of being out of system is though, than the system can be reanalyzed in a different perspective. If that perspective comes back to the existing system, it will recontextualize itself inside of the system....

I'd like to look into what it takes to be anonymous in the contemporary system, and what kind of surveillance is being developed. The idea of electronic transaction in the economic system, or machine tracking system in the process of productions are types of surveillance. On the other hand, people in different class of society, like most wanted from FBI or homeless people are voluntarily or involuntarily out of system, means that they are anonymous and invisible to the system. Is this idea can be represented in some way? Is this research going somewhere that actually requires design decision? I am not sure now but hopefully it works out. :)

Anonymous Network Casestudy 3 | Havenco.

Havenco is both physically and virtually off shore network. By locating its server in the Sealand, the self claimed sovereign state, the service can officially avoid physical adversary attack to the server, because the location itself does not comply with international law. The result of the service was however unsuccessful due to the failure of providing required infrastructure server for the service. At the same time, the service failed to gather enough clients. The idea of Havenco is one of the most close model of Crytonomicon, the famous novel by Neil Stephenson.

It is hard to say that Havenco is anonymous networking service, even though the spectrum of service guarantees the anonymity. Instead, Havenco made their presence invisible by placing themselves into a location that is out of the global system.

Anonymous Network Casestudy 2 | Freenet

The Freenet project is designed based upon the idea of adaptive network. The idea of adaptive network is inspired by the prehistoric navigation. Without locational information from the central authority, people in prehistoric era were geographically able to navigate by gathering information from what they encounter. Assuming the clarity of the information is relative to the proximity of the location, one can reach to the destination by gathering bits and bits of information as he or she gets closer to the destination. The same logic applies to the network, except we are getting closer to the piece of information.

In the adaptive network system, servers not only contain the information itself, but also contains information about other nodes. When a node gets a request for certain information it doesn't have, it will forward the request to the node that actually have that information. The whereabout of the information is then fed back to the system, so the whole system gets update. Moreover, the information itself gets stored in the node that received first request, so it doesn't have to forward the request to other node. This method eventually groups the node based upon similarity of the information.

When a node receive a request, it generates a data reply message contains desired data. If node does not have the data then it should forward the data request on to another node. A node also stores data ID, data replied and request failed history. If a data request is received from the ID that has been seen before, then a backtracking request failed message should be returned to the sender.

The information are removed based upon their usability. The least requested materials are the one that get removed first.

Anonymous Network Casestudy 1 | Free Haven

Free Haven consists of two different system - Publication system and communication channel. The publication system is a back end of communication channel. There are 3 agents in the publication system: author, publisher and reader. These agents are layered over the communication channel and communication with each other via addresses which are implemented as remailer reply blocks (remailer reply blocks: collection of encrypted routing instruction which serve as an address for a pseudonym on the network.)

Free Haven is based upon communities of servers called servnet. The servnet is formed based upon trust among the servers. Each server hosts data from the other server in exchange for the opportunity to store its own data in the network. The servers transfer data by trading storage space in its own. To store a data in the servnet, a server also need to contribute storage space for others.

Each server has a public key and one reply blocks. The documents are indexed by the hash of the public key from the key pair which was used to sign the shares of the document. To locate a server that contains certain document, readers need to generate their own key pair and remail reply block. The server broadcasts a request along with the readers' public key and the reply block.

The servers that receive the broadcast checks to see if it has any shares of the request. If it does, it encrypts each share using the public key posted by the reader enclosed in the request, then send the encrypted share through the remailer to the enclosed address.

The data are split into shares and stored on different servers. Publishers assign an expiration date to document when they are published; servers make a promise to keep their shares of a given document until its expiration date has reached. If a server drops data early, the trust level of the server decrease.

When storing the data, each server agrees to store data for the other servers without considering legal or moral issues.

Free Haven is precedent of Tor. The Tor system is well explained in its website. Click Here.

Most of this information is from the paper "The Free Haven Project: Distributed Anonymous Storage Service." The PDF file can be found here.

Anonymous network operation _ General

Here's the basic idea of anonymous network operation. Let's say, A wants to deliver the information to B. To stay anonymous, A let a delivery service X to deliver the information to B. X receives the information from A and delivers to B. However, X is not a simple trusted third party. X provides specific set of services that can protect anonymity. The anonymous networking system is equal to X.

In late 90s and early 2000, there were lots of research and effort to set up anonymous network. Some of them still exists and operate, and some of them are forced to stop their service. In this research, I looked into how these services operated to protect the leak of information. Even though the basic idea of operation is same, each networks are designed in different way.


I am also trying to find out who are using these network, and who are their adversary in more global scale. I am not sure how much of this information can be extracted.

Anonymity in the net

The federalist paper, published during the original constitutional debates, were published anonymously. Thomas Paine wrote "Common Sense" under pseudonym. In fact, being anonymous makes it possible to push the boundary of culture and politics to next level, which makes it possible for us to evolve.

So how does anonymity works in the network system? As I mentioned before, it seems kind of ironical to achieve anonymity in the networking society since the whole system is based upon connection and communication. Without knowing who and where, how do you even communicate?

Roger Dingleton, the system designer of Free Haven project, makes it clear that the perfect anonymity in the networking system is not only impossible to achieve but also useless. Instead, the anonymity is achieved by manipulating the existing idea of networking. To do that, it is important to identify the agents in the system, their path and possible attacking scenario. To make it clear, I want to mention that these factors are identified from the structure of information publishing system.

There are three possible agents in the system - author, publisher and reader. Author is the one who creates the information. Publisher is the one who place that information in the server space. Reader is the one who access to the information. The flow of the information is pretty uni-directional, and it is super easy to find where it is coming from and where it goes. To achieve the anonymity, it is necessary to complicate the flow of the information inside of the network.

In the network, author, publisher, server, docmument and query can be anonymous and different benefit can be achieved by making them anonymous. It is pretty straight forward to predict what is the benefit of making author and publisher to be anonymous. However, when their identity is revealed there's nowhere for them to get away from being anonymous. (I am assuming that author and publisher are accused purely by being anonymous regardless of their action.) Below are explanation for more complex anonymity.

Server anonymity : No server can be linked to a document. When the document is picked by adversary and author and publisher is given, the adversary is no closer to knowing which server or servers on the network actually possess the document.

Document anonymity : A server does not know which document is stored.

Query anonymity: A server does not know which document it is serving when satisfying server’s request.

What is interesting for me is that the disguise of the event of communication can get complex depends on what is anonymous. Even though the agent is specified, if the adversary can't identify what kind of information it is, how it is delivered, and where it is, it is hard to accuse the agents of the system.

I mentioned earlier that it is not necessary to achieve perfect anonymity inside of the networking system. In the end, the goal of being anonymous is to protect the agents in the network from outside recognition. At the same time, the network won't be able to function under perfect anonymity. Therefore, the networking environment rather tries to be pseudonymous instead of being anonymous. Unlike anonymity, which does not allow any link, pseudonymity enables different actions in the net. For example, the actions in the network allows pseudonym to acquire reputation which influences how much data a server can store and provide incentives based upon that. Yet pseudonymous system provide the protection of profile leak by not telling the true name and location of the agents, that can possibly lead to the real world accusation.

Free will

The wonderful world of invisible profile - anonymous network system

Individuals in a society are sometimes challenged when they express the point of view that does not comply with what general public believes in. However, it is also important, especially in terms of human right, that every individuals have right to say whatever they want - in other words, the freedom of speech need to be guaranteed, as long as it does not harm any other's right. It would be ideal when the right of personal freedom and necessity to restrict the freedom to avoid interrupting other's right somehow self organize without requiring the controlling measure from outside.

What about inside of the networking system? Since the communication is the most important factor, the users of the network system are required to have clear profile to achieve their goal. Without knowing who, where and what, there's no way to connect hundreds and thousands of users in the network. It is such an irony though, it is hard to maintain freedom of speech because it is so easy to track down the profile data of certain user. (ISP, IP address etc.) If certain user has different point of view that goes against public policy and expresses or behaves against it, the adversary of that user (usually authority) can track him or her down to enforce the law.

The idea of anonymity can be reconsidered in the networking system. To achieve the freedom of speech (that is the argument for the most anonymous system), the well designed anonymous networking system is necessary. Since the network system requires the origin and destination, most of the anonymous system have their unique design to achieve level of anonymity while delivering data from A to B


This section of the research looks into the idea of anonymity inside of the network, and how each system employed various system to protect the privacy.