Hacker News Reader

Comment by kobeya | Hacker News Reader

Feedback: darknet has come to mean places where you go buy drugs online, not p2p applications generally.

Does it? I know it has that meaning on the evening news, but even on network television it means something like "the secret internet where crazy stuff is".

I mostly hear it used to mean what it is supposed to mean, but that is rarely from non-technical people.

The problem is that as long as the name has that association at all, it's going to be a way to attack Briar.

Darknet now: Anonymous place drugs sometimes happen

Darknet if it becomes bigger: That place where terrorists and criminals hide, the FBI and NSA say it's a risk to national security and we have to stop it at all costs! What do you mean it's just a secure messaging app? I'm not a terrorist, I don't need anything like that!

They already say that about encryption in general, though.

Yes but there's also a number of existing applications of encryption that are widely deemed acceptable, like securing bank transactions and medical data. Anonymity is much harder to defend, as it doesn't have such clearly worthy purposes.

Journalism and activism under dictatorships are easy examples, if you reject it as a fundamental value/right.

Yeah, but no governemt is lucky with having people operate entirely freely. It makes corruption difficult, and every government has corruption to some degree

You could also see it the other way around, your application is not secure enough if terrorists, dissidents, drug dealers, whistleblowers and child pornographers don't feel confident to use it.

Look at Tor.

You could but I doubt the general public and policy makers are going to see it this way. They're still looking for a backdoor that only the "good guys" can access.

Once again proving that they dont know how any of this works. And still getting re-elected

From an ethical point of view building this software must be difficult. On one hand you are building something that advances technology and could be used to help free people from an oppressive government, on the other hand you are also building something that could be used (and if it works most likely will be used) to aid acts that we all agree are morally wrong.

Ah, the essential ethical dilemma of building encryption software, polaroid cameras, and kitchen knives.

Pick almost any technology, even outside of computers. You could make the exact same statement. I don't see the ethical problem.

What is it supposed to mean?

This is also true of the term "hacker", which is still heavily (and authentically) used

Reply on news.ycombinator.com