From: dwhite@pris.bc.ca
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 14:03:05 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks Mailing List)
Subject: Anonymous Web Browsing
Message-ID: <199603020519.WAA01634@pris.bc.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




        Hi guys..... I'm new here and I don't have the same technical
expertise as I am witnessing with most of the other posters here.

        I do have a question and I hope that it is not too technically naive.

        I have followed the ongoing discussion on PGP security, remailers
and the like.  I am wondering if the current trend with interactive Web
browsing, Java, etc, is not going to create a privacy problem every bit as
significant as insecure e-mail.  As these "applets" become more
sophisticated are we not going to have to face up to the issue of dynamic
links to web sites that gather a lot of info from your computer as you
interact with it?  The recent controversy at Microsoft indicates to me that
interactive Web applets could easily be programmed with hidden "siphon
hoses" that are quitely sucking data from you while you look at the latest
Baywatch poses.

        I am not a programer so I don't know how it would work.  It just
seems to me that it would not be that tall an order to accomplish.  Correct
me if I am wrong.

        My question is this:  Would it be possible to create a web site that
would function along the same lines as remailers do?  Something that would
allow a person to browse anonymously.   So lets say I surfed into a
Interactive Web site that has some kind of Java applet for......say
portfolio projections..... Any personal financial info I dumped into it for
analysis sake could be collected by the server for some kind of customer
profile.  Lets say that I didn't want sensitive financial info exposed to
someone else without my knowledge.  So then I would log into a "Re-Webber"
that would allow me to continue on to the subject site with any electronic
signature following back to the anonymous Web, not back to me.  Another
example that this would be a concern would be in the coming explosion of
Bank oriented services that are coming available.  A "Re-Web" would let you
use applets on a Bank server without the concern that the Bank is gathering
MORE sensitive info on you.

        Forgive me if this technically naive.  I admit I don't know what I
am talking about.  It was something that piqued my curiosity as I was
reading various posts about e-mail security.

        Doug                    dwhite@pris.bc.ca