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bluesky - Re: "hot potato" sub-protocol for plausible deniability (Re: User Anonymity)

bluesky AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems

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  • From: Wei Dai <weidai AT eskimo.com>
  • To: Global-Scale Distributed Storage Systems <bluesky AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: "hot potato" sub-protocol for plausible deniability (Re: User Anonymity)
  • Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 23:46:23 -0800


On Fri, Feb 16, 2001 at 01:01:27AM -0500, Adam Back wrote:
> So here's a simple though probably quite inefficient algorithm to have
> plausible deniability. Each node answers a request just once, then it
> deletes the content. Now if the attacker discovers some content, the
> server operator running unmodified software can quite reasonably claim
> he did not know his server carried that content. If he had used the
> browsing software to obtain the content, the server would by
> definition not have the content.

I don't think that really accomplishes plausible deniability. I think the
criteria for it should be:

1. The server has no way of knowing that it is storing or transporting a
banned object or part of a banned object.

2. There is a plausible reason why it can not know; it can't just be the
result of a mechanism designed solely to avoid this knowledge.

Without (1), the authorities can impose censorship duty on all servers and
punish those that don't comply. Without (2), the authorities can ban usage
of the special "ignorance" mechanism.




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