I think the Privacyguides website only talks about Tor and VPNs. I would like to know more about other type of “Tor-like” networks and similar technologies. Some of this might be relevant for the website, but most probably not.
I would like to know what the following technologies offer:
- Anonymously accessing the clearnet?
- Circumventing censorship (e.g. network blocks, national firewalls)?
- Access to darknet sites? (like .onion or.i2p)
- Hosting websites and files in a censorship-resistant way?
- Possible legal issues if other users are accessing/sharing illegal materials (e.g. when hosting a Tor exit nodes)
Some of these networks/technologies I have heard of:
- Tor: the most obvious one, your connection is routed through 3 random servers, giving you anonymous clearnet access and also for accessing darknet sites (.onion). Snowflake is a browser extension that aims to give Tor access to people in countries where the Tor servers are blocked.
- I2P: seems to be similar but “peer to peer” and only focusing on the darknet (.i2p), no clearnet access (?)
- Hyphanet (formerly Freenet): another peer to peer darknet, claims to be uncensorable because every user will be hosting small bits of data of others, though this is encrypted and split into pieces so you don’t suddenly have someone’s CP downloaded to your computer
- Freenet 2023 (formerly Locutus): ?
- Zeronet: ?
- Lokinet: ?
- IPFS: inspired by Bittorrent and can be used for hosting files that can’t just be deleted/censored, it’s supported in Brave and Opera, don’t think it is anonymous unless you combine it with e.g. Tor
- Shadowsocks: seems to be some kind of VPN specifically made to circumvent network blocks such as the Chinese great firewall
- Yggdrasil Network: ?
- Psiphone: ?
- Normal VPN: should not assumed to be anonymous despite marketing claims (just “shifting trust” from your ISP to them), also VPN connections can be easily blocked by a network administrator
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Would also like to know more, but i believe the main reason of only considering them, is that they are the best thing, and presenting “lower choices” should not be presented, except in specific exceptions (Example : Android category).
The Tor network as been the most mature tested (Not really just the age, I think Freenet might be older. Just in terms of active usage) and do perform well despite the continuous attacks to de-anonimize their users.
I do love IPFS however, and while i think it doesn’t have any specific huge privacy advantage, I still do want if it cause any privacy breakage by how it work.
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While for most people Tor is the easiest thing to implement, it isn’t necessarily better than the other options presented, only more tested.
- Tor: Is the only one on this list designed for clearnet browsing. It only attempts to de-associate your IP address from the requests you make, so other tools must be used to anonymize the contents of your traffic. The most commonly used is the Tor Browser, which attempts to protect anonymity by removing entropy (features that separate you from everyone else). This has a hard cap to how effective it can be, and will always mark you as a Tor user. Tor as a protocol suffers from timing attacks at an increased rate due to the very limited number of exit nodes, though I can’t find any documented examples of one being pulled off. It is also presents legal issues to exit node hosts, as some jurisdictions will hold you responsible for all traffic from your node.
- Yggdrasil: A replacement internet protocol. It currently provides a software router for Ipv6 addresses, allowing most Ipv6 compatible software to work out of the box. It’s stated purpose is to prove a reliable way to route networks with arbitrary topologies, mostly mesh networks. Anonymity is not a goal, though it does have end to end encryption. It has similar weaknesses to HTTPS, though due to the limited amount of metadata it transmits it is better for clients on the privacy front. It is currently deployed as an overlay network, but unlike most p2p networks isn’t limited to being an overlay network and could in theory be used with dedicated hardware the same way the current internet protocol is. If ever deployed as a large enough mesh network it would have some resistance to traffic analysis and timing attacks. I haven’t used it extensively so I don’t know any pitfalls first hand.
- I2P: It uses a similar routing scheme to Tor, although with more configuration options. It has no native support for clearnet usage, though many HTTP proxies are run over it. All traffic is routed through tunnels (think Tor circuits) with an arbitrary number of hops. This same setup exists for servers to receive traffic through, providing strong anonymity to servers as well as clients. Because every user must run a node, your traffic is hidden in the traffic of every other users traffic that you route. I2P is vulnerable to Sybil attacks, in addition to a few others. The network is strictly an overlay network, though it can be used over Yggdrasil for mesh capabilities. I2P offers a good comparison here.
- Hyphanet: An anonymous distributed file share. The only entry here that provides protection to servers getting discovered by shutting down their connection. Is hard to use compared to the other entries on this list. There are some concerns about how anonymous the routing algorithm is, and the lack of analysis that has been performed. Can be used over any transport layer (I2P, Yggdrasil, Tor, Sneakernet, LoRa, etc.), though setup difficulty varies. Haven’t used it extensively so I can’t give a good first hand impression.
I Don’t have any experience with the others on the list, so I can’t attest to any function of the rest. I know that IPFS isn’t private to any degree, leaking both IP address and the content that is being fetched. Zeronet looks largely dead at this point, and Lokinet looks to be a Tor competitor.