The FreedomBox, a good idea?

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Dave_G
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The FreedomBox, a good idea?

#1 Post by Dave_G »


nooby
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#2 Post by nooby »

What is FreedomBox?

Email and telecommunications that protects privacy and resists eavesdropping

A publishing platform that resists oppression and censorship.

An organizing tool for democratic activists in hostile regimes.

An emergency communication network in times of crisis.

FreedomBox will put in people's own hands and under their own control encrypted voice and text communication, anonymous publishing, social networking, media sharing, and (micro)blogging.

Much of the software already exists: onion routing, encryption, virtual private networks, etc. There are tiny, low-watt computers known as "plug servers" to run this software. The hard parts is integrating that technology, distributing it, and making it easy to use without expertise. The harder part is to decentralize it so users have no need to rely on and trust centralized infrastructure.

That's what FreedomBox is: we integrate privacy protection on a cheap plug server so everybody can have privacy. Data stays in your home and can't be mined by governments, billionaires, thugs or even gossipy neighbors.

With FreedomBoxes in their homes, anybody, regardless of technical skill, can easily enjoy secure, private, even anonymous communication!
okay so now I do know a bit more.

is is realistic will it work?
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Trobin
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#3 Post by Trobin »

Simple answer is no. I don't believe it will. It may make it more difficult to eavesdrop on or track. But in all likelyhood there will be someone who can get around it track it or jam it.

How are they going to set up an emergency communiucations system if the powers that be shut down the internet, or cellular networks?
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nooby
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#4 Post by nooby »

Way back in time? could it be 1988 or something.
I fail to remember. Them had something named Fido or similar.
They had people that acted as Hubs and all else depended on these
generous people sharing their computers with us.

One used a Modem that had maybe 300 Baud or 600 or 1200
or something depending on how much money one had.
Then one make a phone call to that Hub and them contacted each others
at night. So everything was totally volunteer as far as I know.

But sure I guess such can be sabotaged too by authorities.
Another thing that emerged about 1989 to 1995 or so.

several guys wanted to make a "Net" of PR radio free radio with amateur modems that would allow poor people to communicate even if them could not afford to have a paid account. A kind of shared community based Net of users that "pooled" their resources.
I guess nothing got accomplished but the Fido BBS thing did work.

I remember I sent several emails long before internet existed.
But I do have a poor memory.
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Dave_G
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#5 Post by Dave_G »

I also think it will be very difficult to get going and the fact that is could
potentially help organized crime and terrorism is not a good thing.

Which beckons the question, how much eavesdropping and interception
should the authorities be able to do without infringing on privacy laws?

Dave.

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Dave_G
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#6 Post by Dave_G »

nooby,

I remember that radio network you refer to.
Many countries had a similar version, one of the biggest was HamNet I think.
Since radio amateurs have access to low earth orbiting satellites (normally
operating on 29MHz and 145Mhz), the network could theoretically be global.

In many parts of the world (USA included) there is a similar system to this day
which is often used during times of natural disasters when the "normal"
infrastructure has collapsed.
They even have sophisticated data "store and repeat" functions for digital data.

Dave.

Trobin
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#7 Post by Trobin »

Yeah, I remember the FidoNet. There was quite a number of the BBS’s connected to it in my area. Don’t know if any of them are still around. I remember I emailed my sister, who had internet, and I didn’t, and the message went from one side of North America to the other before being getting to the Internet. I think it took two days to get to her.

Apparently the FidoNet is still around.

I gather the Freedom Box is a modern day equivalent. A device about the size of a cell phone with wifi and wifi mesh technology, that would act as a server in a federated network rather than as a server in the more centralized Internet. The federated network being set up with a group of friends that would want to work with each other rather than something as huge and impersonal as the Internet. The device is portable enough to be carried out the back door when your local Gestapo is breaking down the front.
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Dave_G
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#8 Post by Dave_G »

Are we that old?
We all remember FidoNet and HamNet :D

http://www.fidonet.org

http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index ... ,13.0.html

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#9 Post by Lobster »

Which beckons the question, how much eavesdropping and interception
should the authorities be able to do without infringing on privacy laws?
The question is are we moving to a transparent society?
Do our institutions follow this trend?
What data are you processing, who is providing it?
Do we open the institutions that rely on corporate and govt secrecy? :)

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nooby
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#10 Post by nooby »

Wifi on Smartphones can share already now so that is a possibility.
But not every smartphone has it? It has a special name.
I doubt any of my four smartphones have it. The most modern and
expensive have it though. One can act as a Hub while all of mine
only act as end users.

But sure one could set up such trusted friend to friend networks.
So the eaves dropping would have to be by infiltration then?
or breaking the crypto one use.

Cops or Police used totally open communication for a while
before them could afford to have coded transmission.
So a lot of folks had as a hobby to listen to what was going on
and them gave tips to Tabloids and made money that way.

Now I guess almost all important communication is over
some kind of digital voice cryptation even here.
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Dave_G
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#11 Post by Dave_G »

nooby,

If your SmartPhone is not older then about 2 years, the chances are
very good that it does have Wifi.

Most things these days have it, printers, projectors and even the very cheap
Kindle ebook reader from Amazon has it and it only costs USD139 (about 940 Krona).

Of course the more expensive items like iPad, Blackberries PlayPad and Android have it too.

These days one can even get small Wifi adapter modules for designers and hobbyists
to connect to their small microprocessor products/projects.

The technology is easy and cheap to use, what is more difficult is designing
the RF network for good signal coverage and reliability such as avoiding
co-channel interference, front-end swamping and the like.

Dave.

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#12 Post by tlchost »

Dave_G wrote:Are we that old?
We all remember FidoNet and HamNet :D
Some may remember some other aspects of Fidonet:
http://fidonet.ro/

PaulBx1
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#13 Post by PaulBx1 »

Cool idea. I was just looking at another distro that has similar aims:

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=incognito

It makes it easy to use TOR for example.

The more people outside the system, the better. I don't care if criminals can use it too. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest criminal organisations are governments themselves. They are the ones we need protection from.

As to Mubarak shutting down the Internet, you recall how long that lasted? Western governments are even more dependent on it than Egypt is.

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smokey01
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#14 Post by smokey01 »

Dave_G wrote:Are we that old?
We all remember FidoNet and HamNet :D

http://www.fidonet.org
I guess so, my site was 3:640/712 (Seldom Inn) :lol:

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