OmniMix • Preface / Principles

The Internet has become the most important medium for research and exchange of views on nearly all imaginable topics. Its common availability and simplicity of use seduce the user to an uncritical interaction. But it has to be realized, that every step taken on the Internet may leave traces, which then are scrupulously tracked and analyzed by those interested in uncovering personal data, is it for gathering email addresses geared towards marketing purposes, for scanning the personal background in the course of an application process, or even for more obscure private, political or business reasons.

Regarding the protocols used for data exchange as well as the immense data storage capability, even of the commonly accessible search engines, data analysis doesn't at all have to take place instantaneously, but perhaps years in the future, when reasons to do so become evident - to the examiner and you.

But how to prevent traces, which might be regretted later on? Dependent on the service you intend to use - and the severity of your paranoia - different strategies have to be put into action.

Concerning electronic mail, the most obvious procedure would be to become firm in the usage of encryption software like GnuPG to convert your postal card into a letter, so that really no one except the sender and the intended recipient(s) will be able to read the data that are exchanged. 'Really no one' means, that tools like GnuPG, where the source code is freely available and can be reviewed by everyone, provide established mathematical algorithms unlikely to be broken in the foreseeable future, regardless of all the rumors that are spread to discourage the uninformed people and prevent them from realizing their civil rights concerning privacy.

But not only the exchanged data are relevant. Irrespective of them the disclosure of the interlocutors itself may already be of great importance to generate a sociogram of the observed person or group, thinking e.g. of secret negotiations or cooperations between companies. That's where networks of anonymous remailers like Mixmaster come into play.

The principle of those 'onion routers' is to anonymize the protocol dependent 'envelope' of your message by suppressing personal data or replacing them with unspecific ones, and then to send it multilayer encrypted through a chain of 'post offices' within its net, so that even the post offices resp. remailers themselves aren't able to trace it back to the origin. For them it's absolutely impossible to figure out the route of the message beyond the remailers it directly communicates with. The last remailer in the chain finally delivers the mail to the recipient.

To make this process somewhat clearer, here's a short example with a real world analogon:

Imagine you've got some transport cases, which are graduated in size and fit perfectly into each other like those well-known little wooden Russian dolls called 'Matryoshkas'. But that's not all what makes those cases special, as they originate from various post offices, already have enough stamps on them to pay the bill, and a recipient sticker with the address of the post office they belong to already filled in. Furthermore they are equipped with a catch, which, once closed, can only be reopened with a key no one else than the single issuing post office owns.

Now, if you intend to make Marilyn, who - as everybody knows - prefers diamonds, anonymously happy, put the concerning jewellery box with her address on it into the smallest case. Then stick that case into a bigger one from a different post office and so on. Finally bring the resulting package to a post office of your choice. That's all you have to do!

Delivering the present, each post office removes its own case and forwards the one uncovered by doing so to the address written on it. The employees won't be able to find out more than the mail service they got the parcel from, and the one that is next in the delivery chain. On the other hand someone waiting outside trying to trace the parcel must fail, as he won't be able to assign in- and outgoing cases correctly, especially as all the parcels are temporarily stored in a depot, from where they are forwarded in random order. Therefore, once the parcel passes the entry post office, you yourself are out of the game. But bear in mind: If you wrapped it up carelessly, the last postman, who gets hold of the undisguised present itself, might discover how precious your parcel is and take it away. So, whenever possible, take additional precautions against that risk, at best by trying to get a lockable case belonging to the girl you admire.

The mentioned strategy applies to e-mail as well as newsgroup contributions, while the latter may be even more problematic due to their extended storage by search engines. For routing a news message correctly you only have to tell the exit remailer to send it to a mail2news gateway, which then 'injects' it into the Usenet.