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Peekabooty aims to banish internet censorship

A long-awaited computer program that can circumvent government censorship of the internet has debuted at a computer conference in the US.

The program - Peekabooty - promises to give people in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia safe access to the whole of the internet. In these countries, internet access is controlled by government-operated ISPs, which blacklist certain web sites. This may include news sites that are deemed unsympathetic to government policy.

Peekabooty relies on users inside and outside a government-imposed "firewall" downloading software. Restricted content can then be delivered using volunteer "nodes" outside the restricted zone communicating with users within.

The content is disguised as encrypted browser traffic, which is normally used to transmit credit card information or sensitive information such as passwords.

Hidden identity

Peekabooty uses a complicated communications system to allow users to share information while revealing little about their identity. When a node receives a request for a web page it randomly decides whether to pass this on or access the page itself. It also only knows the address of its nearest partner. This makes it difficult to determine who requested what information and is designed to protect users from anyone trying to infiltrate the system from inside.

"Many people live under fear of repression," says Malcom Hutty of the UK's Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain. "Ultimately these things will work, because people want and need them."

In the past, some internet sites could be used to beat internet censorship. These sites, such as SafeWeb and Anonymizer, acted as go-betweens, delivering censored content indirectly. But government censors became wise to this, and blocked access to these sites. Because content viewed using Peekabooty is disguised, government agencies should not be alerted to uncensored internet use.

SafeWeb launched another program designed to route content through volunteer computers called Triangle Boy in 2001. But this does not maintain the anonymity of users.

Peekabooty was demonstrated at the CodeCon 2002 conference, in California.



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