Remaining completely anonymous on the Internet is no small task. If
Zero-Knowledge System’s
President Austin Hill has anything to say about it, his Freedom
Network will make online privacy a basic universal right.
More than 50 Internet service providers and independent server operators
have joined forces with Zero-Knowledge to support the Freedom Network, an international association of server operators that
support privacy on the Web and in e-mail, newsgroups and chat rooms.
“This represents the first time that ISPs have taken
concrete steps to address users’ privacy concerns. Our original goal
was to sign up 25 ISPs and we’re overwhelmed by their commitment to
the privacy issue while we are still in beta testing,” Hill said.
Freedom Partners operate servers that route encrypted Freedom data
through an untraceable path in real-time. Privacy is assured for both
the sender and recipient because no single party knows the IP address
of both the source and the destination. Freedom users are immune to
uninvited scrutiny of their online activities.
The system is more pseudo-nonymous than anonymous in that users create
a pseudonym to use on the network. Zero-Knowledge erases the original
information gathered to create the non-traceable identity.
Spammers can’t benefit from hiding their identity through
Zero-Knowledge because anyone posting more than 300 e-mails a day has their access level lowered. E-commerce and cookie-laden
Web sites that cull information about web surfers are not able to
track digital footprints or electronically tag their web preferences.
“By joining the Freedom Network, ISPs differentiate themselves and
offer added value to their customers by supporting Internet privacy,”
said Greg Adelstein, director of business development for
Zero-Knowledge.
Addelstein added that ISPs can “generate revenue while reducing
operating costs and liability because all Freedom Network
communications originate from an @freedom.net address. A significant
portion of an ISP’s liability issues can be offloaded directly to
Zero-Knowledge because the source of problem can not be traced.
ISPs that join the Freedom Network can download the software for free
and earn additional income from users that sign-up for the
Zero-Knowledge program. Hill said that Zero-Knowledge adds about 5,000
new anonymous identities each week and that they have signed up 35,000
netizens to date.
The Freedom Network currently includes server operators in the U.S.,
U.K., Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Austria and Australia.
