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How to build a totally uncontrolled internet?

2 points by Lucadg ↗ HN
My Mexican friend is convinced that the Internet is a tool used by governments to control people. I tend to believe that it's a tool and everybody uses it for different means: governments to control, people to communicate, oppositions to get organized (e.g. Arab spring) and so on.

Maybe governments in the end prevail and whatever we do online will be used against us when and if needed. If that happens how are we people going to respond? Can we build a private/free Internet not controlled by anyone.

Let aside any conspiracy theory or political discussion, I am just curios about: is this possible and how do we do it?

I assume that the weak link is data transmission. Telecoms and satellite are probably not safe ways to transmit data the governments don't like. So what is left? Airwaves? These are controllable too, right?

So a free internet will depend entirely on a good encryption method?

I'm sure there's a lot of material online about this but I wanted to ask you guys first as I am interested in the technical details of it and you can give me a very unique perspective.

Thanks!

3 comments

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[dead] mbzastava
it will take true genius to get us out of this one... for the time being, have hope in our youth. google "cryptocat"
atlasom
Check this out: http://www.reddit.com/r/darknetplan

The main issue with transmitting data across the airways is not eavesdropping but jammers and the source being shut down. Encryption takes care of the eves, but with a few radios, you can triangulate the source. Why waste time breaking the encryption key (and if your smart you'll use 2048 Bit Cyphers+) when you can simply walk over to the source and take it directly from the transmitter.

Other than transmission, the hard part is making these systems resilient to attack and failure and for most of them, they want to be fully anonymous.

Now the alternative to full on meshnets are darknets. Darknets are built on existing infrastructure but are designed for resilience, anonymity, and encryption. These exist in popular forms such TOR, I2P and others. Of course the downside to this is that it can be shut down if the physical wiring is removed.

Lucadg
So the key seems to be to having many nodes, corrects? They may shut down some but others can be built at the same time. It's good to know that there are some efforts in this sense, but as far as I understand we're pretty far from it right?