[ISN] SafeWeb ain't all that

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Fri Oct 19 2001 - 11:26:29 PDT

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    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/22331.html
    
    By Thomas C Greene in Washington
    Posted: 18/10/2001 at 12:08 GMT
    
    What a total idiot I am. I never asked Web anonymizer SafeWeb exactly
    what they mean when they say they "collect NO logs or user data beyond
    what is required for performance tuning and security monitoring of our
    servers. Any such data is carefully safeguarded, only analyzed
    statistically, and is destroyed soon thereafter."
    
    To me, 'soon thereafter' means 'during the next shift' when we're
    talking about a company that sells anonymity. And that's what I pretty
    well expected. And 'soon thereafter' is all you'll find in the
    company's privacy statement.
    
    Thanks to Cryptome's John Young, we now know that the logs are kept
    seven days.
    
    Seven days. Christ, I've 'researched' http exploits from behind
    SafeWeb. Long enough ago not to have anything to fear, but still, the
    idea that the logs live seven days is a jolt.
    
    That's not anonymity. It's a decent shot at anonymity.
    
    But who's got anything better? Anonymizer doesn't even mention logs in
    their privacy statement. God knows what that means. Do they have no
    logs? Do they not mind getting hacked? If you DoS them will they be
    content never to know it?
    
    That sort of obscurity is even worse. SafeWeb tells you they'll keep
    the logs briefly, though seven hours seems a lot briefer than seven
    days to me. Anonymizer won't dare broach the topic.
    
    Now that ZeroKnowledge has cancelled Freedom, where's the true on-line
    anonymity?
    
    Where the hell is Peekabooty? Where the hell is Steve Gibson when you
    need him? 
    
    
    
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