Your Own Private Internet

From wsuwiki

1 Introduction
2 What is a darknet?
3 Pros
4 Cons
5 References

Introduction

Personal privacy over the internet is a major concern. With more and more people linking to the internet every day from every electronic devise possible, file sharing and personal identifying infomration are out there. Many people don't understand that there are companies monitoring your information online and they don't always have to identify themselves or tell you what they are doing with your information. [1] There are many software companies that provide software to protect your personal information, but that often requires downloading and installing something on your computer. To combat this, developers from HP have thought of a way to make a private file sharing network, or darknet, available for use in a web browser form. "Here's how the idea works: Someone navigates to a Web site that serves up some JavaScript code that runs in the user's browser. That code uses the local storage capacity built into the latest version of browsers like Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. As a result, each user gives up some local storage that holds redundant, encrypted slices of data that together are coordinated and shared by the darknet. As a whole, the information exists so long as the darknet exists." [2]

What is a darknet?

A darknet is a closed private network of computers used for file sharing. [3] The term darknet was used in the early 70's to mean a network that was not connected to ARPANET. [4]

Pros

The method of file sharing HP wants to introduce would be much easier for the average person to use. There would be no requirement to download or install software on the computer. Instead, the user would be able to open their internet browser and know they are on a secured network.