Just another unnecessary technology, adding itself to the sedimentary layer of lifes’ anxieties, commandeered by criminals for exploiting the fragility of society which is ultimately you and I , and mostly exploited by a Chinaman or a Nigerian with a computer sitting comfortable in an Internet cafe.

Dan

In the old SciFi book, "The Green Hills of Earth", the poles of Venus (which were slightly colder than the planet's center, averaging only 40°C) were settled by greedy "patrons" and people were kidnapped from Earth to serve them in slavery conditions and extreme heat.

Some slaves escaped into the Venusian marshes and managed to coordinate their rebellion using... simple AM radios, an "ancient" technology that was long unused, hence the authorities were not listening to their communications so the rebellion ended up a success.

We need to preserve the good old "dumb" technologies, no matter what "smart" technologies emerge. Among other advantages, these will protect our privacy. Ordinary people should be able to live without these new toys, government should never mandate their use and consumer groups should pressure for the revival of 20th-century solid, private, reliable and enduring technology.

While it is technically impossible to protect our privacy and identity in places like the internet, it is still possible to protect them from EITHER governments OR commercial entities, sadly not both together.

The internet should therefore be split into a "protected" network where our privacy and identity are not compromised by commercial corporations; and a "free" network where our privacy and identity are not compromised by governments. These networks should be isolated in terms of hardware, software, servers, routers and addressing.

The "free" network would operate pretty much like the current dark web, at one's own risk.

The "protected" network should be controlled by non-commercial public management. It should include dedicated E-mail services where each mail and its source are accounted for; same for VOIP phone/video/conference calls ; an independent non-commercial, non-biased and ad-free search-engine; access to government websites; online-banking; and a uniform, non-hassle, shopping experience that isolates the customers from the shop-owners, same for flight/train/hotel booking, except that the traveler-names may not be disclosed for unnecessary purposes. This forum could be included too, so long as there are no ads and the users are verified to be who they claim to be, thus liable to criminal charges for SPAM.

I was of the understanding that a "use once private key" could provide the required anonymity- though this could potentially create an overhead.