Education & Numérique

"Freedom of speech online could get a big boost

The anonymous Internet is small. Too small, if you ask many activists, and it may need to grow 10, or even 50, times its current size, if its going to continue to support free speech around an increasingly digital world.

Tor, the largest anonymizing network ever built, fundamentally relies on just 2,000 volunteer routers to relay 99 percent of its encrypted data around the globe (...)"

"Big data—the kind that statisticians and computer scientists scour for insights on human beings and our societies—is cooked up using a recipe that’s been used a thousand times. Here’s how it goes: Acquire a trove of people’s highly personal data—say, medical records or shopping history. Run that huge set through a “de-identification” process to anonymize the data. And voila—individuals become anonymous, chartable, and unencumbered by personal privacy concerns.

So what’s the problem? It turns out that all that de-identified data may not be so anonymous after all. (...)"