麻豆传媒

THE makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are facing an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission after it emerged that explicit sex scenes were hidden inside the popular game鈥檚 software.

The discovery provoked a wave of condemnation from politicians, including an accusation by Republican congressman Fred Upton that GTA鈥檚 publisher, Take-Two, had 鈥渂latantly circumvented the rules in order to peddle sexually explicit material to our youth鈥�.

But it is not the first time technology has been used to offer people a sneaky peek at sex. The 鈥渁dult entertainment鈥� industry embraced video cassettes, DVDs and the web more quickly than its mainstream counterparts because these media are tailor-made for private viewing. Consumers eager for a glimpse of skin, but afraid of being found out or of being spotted in a seedy blue-movie cinema, helped drive the demand for more of these technologies.

In the process, they are making the internet a more hospitable place for those promoting racial, ethnic or religious hatred, or even organising terrorist attacks. But it will also help political dissidents and whistle-blowers, so technologies created to help porn enthusiasts today are the human rights鈥� tools of tomorrow.

Nick Mathewson, a Boston-based software developer working on a cutting-edge internet anonymity network called Tor, says privacy is not just a porn problem. 鈥淚t鈥檚 for issues like health information and political speech. We鈥檙e trying to offer privacy and anonymity to everyone 鈥� we don鈥檛 distinguish what we feel that people should and shouldn鈥檛 have access to.鈥�

Like many new tools that promise privacy online, Tor is a response to the fact that the internet does not guarantee anonymity any more. Website software often creates logs full of information about who you are and what you click on, even after you鈥檝e left the site. And new analytical techniques make it easier for eavesdroppers to figure out where you鈥檙e going online, and where you鈥檙e coming from.

That鈥檚 why the next decade may usher in a progression from the physical privacy of the web, which hides what you鈥檙e doing from your next-door neighbours, to systems such as Tor that give you online anonymity, hiding what you鈥檙e doing from snoopers on computer networks.

But publishers of online porn aren鈥檛 just facing new technological challenges 鈥� there are legal ones too. Several high-profile internet obscenity cases are working their way through the US courts. Barbara Nitke, the plaintiff in one of them, is a New York-based photographer of adult images who has challenged the definition of obscenity in US law. The Communications Decency Act says it is illegal to transmit content via the internet that 鈥渁ppeals to the prurient interest鈥� and is deemed offensive by 鈥渃ontemporary community standards鈥�.

Nitke argues that this law restricts free speech. Because her website of explicit photographs can be viewed by anyone in the US, she feels there is a constant threat that some community might deem it offensive by their local standards and charge her with obscenity. Her suit challenges the idea that 鈥渃ommunity standards鈥� that follow real-world borders can be applied to the internet, as it is a global entity.

When Nitke鈥檚 case was heard in a New York court last year, the US government argued that community standards could be maintained online through the use of geolocation software. Most such software works by checking the unique internet protocol (IP) address on a website visitor鈥檚 computer, and matching it to a geographical place using a variety of methods, such as the registered location of the visitor鈥檚 internet service provider (ISP).

The court announced on 25 July that it had failed to make a decision on the use of geolocation software to maintain community standards, and the case is now on appeal to a higher court.

Ubiquitous geolocation on the internet would kill the idea of anonymity online. 鈥淕eolocation would destroy people鈥檚 sense of privacy and freedom,鈥� says Nitke. 鈥淎s soon as you know your personal proclivities are open for the government to know about, it鈥檚 a huge wet blanket.鈥�

But Ben Laurie, a London-based computer security expert with A. L. Digital, is sceptical that geolocation could be effective on any broad scale. 鈥淣one of this software works,鈥� he says. 鈥淕eolocation by IP address is all you鈥檝e got, and that鈥檚 determined by where cables run and where your ISP is, which has bugger all to do with legal jurisdictions.鈥� In other words, an IP address might tell you where somebody鈥檚 ISP is, but that might be hundreds of kilometres or more from where he or she lives. It certainly won鈥檛 reveal what community standard should be applied to the person in question. Nevertheless, if Nitke鈥檚 case reaches the US Supreme Court, it is possible the judges will rule that geolocation software be used to enforce geographical community standards online.

But if history is any indication, efforts to track people鈥檚 whereabouts as they peruse porn are doomed to fail. The urge to remain unseen has already driven many to use anonymous proxies 鈥� computers that substitute their own IP addresses for yours to shield your true location. It鈥檚 not just for the tech-savvy: Anonymizer in San Diego, California, offers an anonymous surfing package that routes all your web activities through an anonymous proxy to mask your IP address.

鈥淜nowing that your proclivities are open to the government is a huge wet blanket鈥�

More sophisticated solutions, such as Tor, don鈥檛 just hide your personal IP address but also mask your location from snoops who try to hunt you down with a technique called 鈥渢raffic analysis鈥�, which works out the pathway your communications take over the internet. When you鈥檙e surfing the web, or sending and receiving emails, Tor routes your data through its network of servers, which encrypt your communication while also creating arbitrary and constantly changing paths for it through the Tor network. As a result, your IP address will appear different every time you visit a given website. And it鈥檚 extremely difficult for somebody to find out where your messages are coming from by following them back through the Tor network.

鈥淚 would definitely expect people to use a tool like Tor to get around geolocation,鈥� says Roger Dingledine, who works with Mathewson on Tor development. 鈥淧art of the goal of Tor is to put all the users on neutral ground, so they can鈥檛 be singled out and treated differently based on where they鈥檙e coming from.鈥� Tor has received funding from the US navy, which is interested in using the technology to snoop at websites without being identified, as well as San Francisco-based civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Other researchers, such as Ian Goldberg, the chief scientist of security specialist Zero-Knowledge Systems, are developing ways to exchange instant messages while shielding users from being identified. Goldberg鈥檚 Off-the-Record (OTR) messaging protocol allows people to send messages using encryption keys that are discarded after each use, so even if a snooper finds the key for one messaging session, they cannot decrypt another session. Whether the conversation is about naughty fantasies or human rights鈥� violations, spies won鈥檛 be able to find out who was talking or what was said.

Now that technical developments and social forces have left the web about as private as a room of surveillance cameras, it is often the secretive hunt for porn that creates a market for new technologies such as Tor and OTR messaging. In turn we end up with tools that can also be used to promote liberty and justice. That鈥檚 good news for political dissidents and human rights workers 鈥� as well as anyone who feels their browsing is nobody鈥檚 business but their own.