Forum Moderators: phranque
A United Nations agency is quietly drafting technical standards, proposed by the Chinese government, to define methods of tracing the original source of Internet communications and potentially curbing the ability of users to remain anonymous.The U.S. National Security Agency is also participating in the "IP Traceback" drafting group, named Q6/17, which is meeting next week in Geneva to work on the traceback proposal. Members of Q6/17 have declined to release key documents, and meetings are closed to the public.
The potential for eroding Internet users' right to remain anonymous, which is protected by law in the United States and recognized in international law by groups such as the Council of Europe, has alarmed some technologists and privacy advocates. Also affected may be services such as the Tor anonymizing network.
This surveillance equipment was to be controlled by the Complainant and it was acknowledged that Conversations (and other interesting sounds) from the adjoining bedroom would in all probability be heard and recorded.
The UK is supposedly democratic and free so just imagine what treatment citizens of countries such as China and Co will get as a result of this.
Governments will (not may) abuse this powerful new method of detecting and tracing whether or not criminality or terrorism is involved.
Again, the article didn't have any details, but I would hope the UN wasn't trying to dictate technical standards which suggests it is probably something more along the lines of record keeping standards for ISPs. In the US the only effect this would likely have is making it riskier to pirate music, movies, and software online. I can't imagine it would give law enforcement free access to ISP logs. It's not like any government needs a UN resolution to allow it to spy on its own citizens.
How is "IP Traceability" really any different than the current situation where the government can indeed use ISP records to find what ISP account was used to access/distribute information.
When you say to an ISP in France that they must co-operate with IP trackback requests from the government of China, there is something very wrong.
1) Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you...
2) I am not, as of yet, invisible to the naked eye. Why should I believe/feel I am invisible on the internet? I am all for anonymity, but I am not of the impression that I have it right now. What would I really be losing? Only my sense of anonymity?
3) I feel like most major criminals are caught either by a) their own stupidity (count greed under this category) or b) complete accident (the same way many medicines are...discovered only while trying to solve some other problem). This, to me, looks like an attempt to buy an extra lottery ticket in the fight against crime...
4) Anyone ever heard of a U.N. resolution holding any water? The Q6/17 can put whatever they wish on a piece of paper. Put the paper in a bottle. Toss the bottle out to sea. Then, flaunt their own egregious defiance of the resolution while patting themselves on the back. "Another job well done! Now let's go write a nasty letter to some despot -- hey America, who are you selling arms to this week?!" (I am an American, by the way).
5) If governments want to trace you, I am sure they already can. Also, if governments want to enact some bilateral agreement on how to set-up a traceback system, it means they have already developed methods to avoid being traced themselves. Stand-by for programs being leaked to the public.
6) If no one sees a post from me for a few weeks, please let my mother know I am in Guantanamo on vacation -- the traceback initiative passed and is working properly :o)
oh man... Just think about this... Blackhats could gain more than anon web browsing with this. They could essentially walk around the web holding up someone else's ID up and claiming it to be theirs, and deal damage in other people's names! And! the ID owner would have even more of a difficult time explaining to the feds why they are innocent...
