Void Communications had better be ready for a call from Department of Homeland Security.
Why? Because in a world where a bottle of shampoo is considered a risk to commercial aviation it's likely that federal security officials will see red flags in a service designed to provide any two people - say, Osama bin Laden and his right-hand man in the U.S. - with an electronic communications channel that leaves not a trace of its contents or the identities of the participants.
Key to Void's Web-based VaporStream service is the fact that at no time does the body of the message and the header information appear together, thus leaving no record of the interaction on any computer or server. The message cannot be forwarded, edited, printed or saved, and, once it's been read, it disappears; nothing is cached anywhere. No attachments allowed. "If you need a record, use e-mail. If you don't, use VaporStream," said Void CEO Joseph Collins in the company's morning presentation at DEMOfall.
Billed as potentially controversial by show organizers, it's not difficult to see why an application of this sort would cause concern among corporate security officials in addition to the feds. "Bad people can do bad things with just about anything," Void's chief brand officer Bob Hall told me at the company's show booth. The company doesn't see VaporStream being a useful tool for terrorists because it's built for one-to-one conversations, not one to a group. As for corporate concerns, Hall says companies will need to fashion acceptable-use policies and, in some cases, block access to VaporStream, depending on their security needs. What they're trying to do with VaporStream is provide a secure, confidential means of communication that also happens to be recordless. "Good guys need confidentiality, too," notes DEMO Executive Producer Chris Shipley.
She's right, of course, but that's not going to stop people from raising concerns.
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Void's naivete
The company doesn't see VaporStream being a useful tool for terrorists because it's built for one-to-one conversations, not one to a group.
Terrorists who are organized as cells would use this approach, specifically to avoid having the entire group potentially exposed by an intercepted message.
And Chinese, Iranian, and
And Chinese, Iranian, and other oppressed disidents could communicate withouth threat of retaliation...
Six of one, half dozen of the other.....
And American
And in the near future American dissidents can use this to exercise the free speech the government is gradually taking away from them now
Without a trace is a Myth
There is currently no way to send anything over the internet with out any trace at all. It is currently just to costly and innefficient to track at a large scale. You have to know your target first. Give it time though. With IPv6 in greater use there are enough IP addresses for each person on the world to have one assigned to them. It would be easy to change the technology to force you to have your own ip address to even access the internet at all. Say with a Chip in the Hand (See Verichip) or other technology. At that point you can say goodbye to Anonymous....And free speech.
Network is the freedom
Internet is not held by any commercial nor governmental entity, nor can it be. It's an interlinked network of Autonomous Systems, usually owned by different companies in different countries, with individually defined routing, peering and transit rules. Unless everyone agrees to deny access to people refusing to use verichip, the network will survive and will continue to operate.
Not to mention the ability to create independent internets, as in the begining, there were quite a few competing address spaces.
Tools like this are only good in the short term.
He who controls the Backbone controls the Internet. Now at this time control of the Internet is in theory decentralized but it would be relatively simple to change that.
Tools such as the above will continue to flourish for a time.
As time goes on Governments who wish to control their people (Say China for example) will find they are unable to keep people who are already online from using such tools to escape their tyrannical controls. Governments with other more insidious intentions will desire the same but will not be so obvious about their means until it is too late.
Weather it be terrorism or some other reason to “Protect The Common Good.” or due to business design “To Improve the Quality of Life and Provide for new services.” Your computer, your cell phone, your refrigerator and even your toaster will eventually be connected to the internet and assigned it’s own unique Ipv6 address. This is what is happening now.
Also happening now, Large Companies are vying to position themselves as the next biggest and better security alternative. You may have noticed that some stores are trying to use such technologies as Finger Print Scanners. But those can be faked. So can a retinal scan and at this point so can an RF ID signal that Verichip uses but that is a problem that can be solved through encryption. You cannot encrypt a Fingerprint. So it is the logical choice but may not be the final solution.
Merge the two technologies and you now have a way to control the Internet and all the population that fall for it, because that self same chip will be used in lue of your ATM card. So if you no longer have physical money and the governments though the banks (Or vice versa) have control of your chips account can simply turn it off or order it to be turned off.
How many people in our “I want it now” society do you know would continue to fight if you took away all their money? No money now house, car, gas, food and possibly family. How many would be willing to help them if they knew the same would happen to them?
Don’t think because the Internet aspires to freedom now that it truly is or would continue to be so. Tools like this are good only in the short term. Keep your eyes open.
Oh yes there is.
Go find out what a mix network is. Or go look at Tor.
Sure, people know who's using the network, but nobody has any idea who sent what message and nobody (except the recipient) knows what's in any message. Oh, and also, nobody knows whether you are the recipient of a message or just a middleman who can't read it. It's untraceable in every meaningful sense of the word.
You miss the point. If you
You miss the point. If you cannot be tracked at the end point and you cannot be tracked during transmission then where is the next logical place? At the Transmission point. And how could that be accomplished? By legislation that could be accomplished. If you think that this is not possible ask any medical practice about HIPAA. No Medical practice anywhere wanted it or liked the idea. Even the insurance companies were fighting against it. Medicare did not even want it. It can from poorly informed Washington read tape manufacturers. No amount of protest will work when the Tin Soldiers of congress get their marching orders from elsewhere.
lol - the sad thing is that
lol - the sad thing is that you are correct. Who is to say that the current administration doesn't use it's over reaching surveillance powers to see what the opposition is up to and exploit it from there? I think this tool will be useful for both parties since the eloquent Mr. Bush said "if you are not with us, you are against us". Could that statement not be read as "if you don't support us going to war, then you are against us". That would then lead to "you are a potential terrorist and thus we have the duty to perform surveillance upon you".
This technology could be just what is needed in a 1984 style country... Freedom to express your political views. My apologies for taking this in a political direction but I see that as the first potential use for this technology.
Losing Free Speech?
What sort of free speech are you losing, gradually, exactly? eh? Didnt think so. You're just one of thousands who loves to whine.