"Freedom of Information"

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Analysis
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A dark reality where activity on the Internet is observed is almost here. Users are left out to commercial or impractical solutions that is not viable in the end for integrity protection. Third parties may log origin IP-addresses that is traced to an untrusted internet access provider for user identification. A hypothetical modification in the Internet protocol to encrypted addressing using certified software in internet routers and home computers would be needed to generally solve this dilemma. The AnoTorrent peer-to-peer Bittorrent client anonymization technology approaches this ideal and makes surveillance a hard and tedious task by an anonymization overlay network on top of the regular internet. Note that anonymity that is 100% safe on the Internet is only possible theoretically.

Compatibility
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AnoTorrent implements public content sharing opposed to private or friend content sharing with closed and limited share. The content sharing is completely open and anonymity is achieved by AnoTorrent's design to disguise the originators of the shared content. The widely spread Bittorrent technology in AnoTorrent delivers future usability with its neat performance. AnoTorrent uses standard Bittorrent trackers compatible with the Bittorrent protocol. AnoTorrent optionally connects to the unanonymous public BitTorrent network to allow network migration.

Design
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AnoTorrent uses numerous random identical clients in the network as relaying proxies to disguise the originators of the shared content. Sensitive connection information is encrypted and hidden to the user in AnoTorrent to keep the IP-addresses of the peers secret. Hence a single intruder who has infiltrated the AnoTorrent network can not get informaion about the source or destination origin of the content in transfer. A varying number of relaying proxies up to a known maximum is used in AnoTorrent. An unveiling of a content transfer taking place by an AnoTorrent peer is very unlikely. It is required for unveiling of an AnoTorrent peer that a connection besides becoming infiltrated in the other peer also is infiltrated in all other relaying proxies making up the longest possible path in the network. This multiple intruder threat against AnoTorrent peers need to be organized and coordinated which makes it difficult.

Comparasion
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AnoTorrent is derived from the well known BitTorrent client "Vuze" (or "Azureus") with integrated anonymization technology. The anonymization technology in AnoTorrent is implemented as an OSI Session Layer in the client. No other software than the AnoTorrent client is needed. AnoTorrent is not as in "I2P" and "Tor" based applications composed of external tunneling software. AnoTorrent uses all peers themselves for relaying in a true anonymization network layer. AnoTorrent thus has full network utilization in opposition to tunneling solutions which make them a performance bottleneck with software run separately. The anonymization network layer in AnoTorrent is circuit switched.

Configuration
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It is noteworthy that AnoTorrent not necessarily need a central server with tracker software because of Vuze's distributed database (DHT). The DHT is used specifically in AnoTorrent to get random relaying proxies for a connection. AnoTorrent uses a statistical stealth parameter that can be adapted against the present threat situation as it is likely that faster networks in the future will be penetrated by more intelligent attackers. The stealth value in AnoTorrent is the maximum number of relaying proxies used which gives a small profile by a hard to detect physical signature of the content sharer. The higher the stealth value is in AnoTorrent the smaller the content sharer profile will be. This technique make the AnoTorrent content sharer signature decreasing linearely in an arbitrary connection when the stealth value is raised. There might be a performance degradation in AnoTorrent with a too high stealth value. At present (year 2010) a stealth value in AnoTorrent set between 2 and 5 is moderate.