Internet Access

Contrary to popular belief, using the Internet is not anonymous at all. Since the Internet is a packet-switching network, every IP packet must carry the IP addresses of both communication endpoints. Consequently, anyone capable of observing at least one packet of a communication relationship can tell who is communicating with whom. The problem with this lack of anonymity is that it limits the privacy protection of Internet users. Today, privacy issues in the Internet are usually addressed by legislations that require operators of servers to clearly state their privacy practices and by encrypting the applica-tion data exchanged between two communicating parties. In general, privacy practices are difficult to enforce and encrypting the application data does not hide the IP addresses in the IP packets. However, learning the endpoints of communications relationships often reveals a lot of information about indi-vidual Internet users ’ preferences, habits, and problems; for instance when accessing web sites that provide medical information, religious sites, or th