[GENERAL_SMILEY]

Haven't seen this commented on anywhere, but there is a new anonymous web access service available to mac users from www.primedius.com - it appears to be a simple SSL tunnel to their servers, as well as some moderately useful services (from their website):

"Private Anonymous Surfing

IP Masking, Anti-Snoop

Encrypted Online Traffic

Cache & History Cleaner

Trace Cleaner

Popup Killer

Ad Killer

Blocks Referral Information

Cookie Manager

IRC IM SOCKS Support"

The important thing to notice is it has SOCKS support and can be configured to be used by file sharing apps (so newly available for OSX) - could this be a way for the less than honest among you to avoid the RIAA?

[TheIceMan]

This is basically Anonymizer brought onto the Mac platform. Both Primedius and Anonymizer are trying to capitalize on people's fears. Don't forget, if the governement "is" tracking you, they will find what they need. This so-called protection requires a yearly subscription, and even then it doesn't clean your computer. For instance:

Anonymous Browsing
Primedius technology completely protects your web browsing and online activity to ensure your total privacy, security and peace of mind. Unlimited service and unlimited product updates guarantees your satisfaction. Use anywhere, anytime with IE, Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari.
***Does not include OmniWeb or Camino.

Cache and History Cleaner
Cleans all cache and online history evidence. Supports Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher. Full release in the near future will support all browsers in our compatibility list.
***Primedius only supports IE currently. Safari already does this for FREE.


Anyways, just wanted to add my 2 cents. If you are going to pay for something like this, at least know what you're getting and NOT getting.

[GENERAL_SMILEY]

What you say is true, obviously if you were involved in criminal activities, they would give you up (rightly so) - although even then, the fact they are based in the US would hinder, to an extent, an investigation based in Europe for instance.

But RIAA, is a commercial organization, it is targeting ISPs who are giving up peoples personal details without a court order, to pursue in the civil courts.

[Phanguye]

Originally posted by GENERAL_SMILEY:
But RIAA, is a commercial organization, it is targeting ISPs who are giving up peoples personal details without a court order, to pursue in the civil courts.

these people would also have to give up your information... so it is pointless

[decursive]

unless they don't keep records of who accessed what. either way, i wouldn't sign up for this.

the likely future:
most information is free to be posted without fear of prosecution, and for that which is not, freenet will allow the spread of completely anonymous info. p2p will quickly adapt to using UDP as opposed to TCP/IP, creating anonymous file sharing (some file sharing apps have already started doing this). so, in the end, services like this will be useless.

unfortunately it seems like a long time till we get encrypted email and instant messaging standards.

[macmike42]

Originally posted by decursive:
unless they don't keep records of who accessed what. either way, i wouldn't sign up for this.

the likely future:
most information is free to be posted without fear of prosecution, and for that which is not, freenet will allow the spread of completely anonymous info. p2p will quickly adapt to using UDP as opposed to TCP/IP, creating anonymous file sharing (some file sharing apps have already started doing this). so, in the end, services like this will be useless.

unfortunately it seems like a long time till we get encrypted email and instant messaging standards.

Eh? UDP is just TCP without connection or delivery control. It gets dropped by most firewalls, is virtually useless for file transfers, and is not in any way encrypted or anonymous.

As for encrypted e-mail, try PGP or GPG (there are plugins for Mail and Entourage). For encrypted IM, GAIM or Trillian.

[Superchicken]

Uhh why not just take the money you'd subscribe to this with and buy the music from iTMS?

[TimmyDee51]

I'm not so sure that UDP vs. TCP/IP is really the issue here. I for one see the future of p2p file sharing going the way of the Hotline ilk and morphing into something like KDX, which employs encryption. I think that all "personal" internet traffic should be encrypted. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but the current justice department is scaring me with their hardline tactics and I for one don't want to be part of a witch hunt because of some email I sent to my friends joking around that was misinterpreted.

[decursive]

Originally posted by macmike42:
Eh? UDP is just TCP without connection or delivery control. It gets dropped by most firewalls, is virtually useless for file transfers, and is not in any way encrypted or anonymous.

As for encrypted e-mail, try PGP or GPG (there are plugins for Mail and Entourage). For encrypted IM, GAIM or Trillian.

you probably know more about upd than me, but the reason i mentioned it is that blubster claims to now be anonymous, using some form of udp. whether this is true or not, i don't know, but my point is that p2p apps will eventually wise up and become anonymous.

as for the mail/IM, i know the technologies exist, but without standards it's all useless. sure i can send a PGP email to someone, but then they need PGP as well. so unless someone big standardizes on it, it's no good.

I think that all "personal" internet traffic should be encrypted

sorry to say this, but there's absolutely no way that's happening soon. people simply don't care enough.