EMAIL THIS
TWEET THISWith governments crippling the Internet and advertisers sucking up every bit of our personal data, it's time to create a “people’s Internet.” It's time to connect pocket-sized servers with encrypted communications that can't be turned off or data-mined.
It's time for Freedom Boxes.
Freedom Boxes are the brainchild of Eben Moglen, a law professor at Columbia Law School, a former computer programmer, founder of the Software Freedom Law Center, and a major advocate for open-source software.
Moglen doesn't want the government to be able to shut down or significantly impede Internet communications, as we've seen in Egypt, Libya, and Myanmar.
He also hates Web services companies that offer free services in exchange for "spying" on their customers. And Moglen really hates Facebook , which often introduces advertising services that play fast and loose with user information. He has said its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, “has done more harm to the human race than anybody else his age.”
Moglen's Freedom Boxes would place communications more in the hands of citizens than governments and corporations. He envisions a small box -- no larger than a television set-top box, or even as small as a cellular phone charger -- that could be plugged into a wall socket or run on batteries. Check out the DreamPlug and the TonidoPlug to get an idea what Moglen's thinking about. They're the size of large electrical plugs, but function as computers or servers.
Freedom Boxes would run open-source software, such as the Linux-based Debian operating system, as well as security, communications, and applications software. These servers would be able to access the Internet, but communications networks among Freedom Box users (mesh networking) would be private.
And rather than using public cloud services, such as Facebook, users could employ open-source software for social networking among themselves, rather than running the risk of insecure social networking sites vacuuming up their data for advertisers.
Freedom Boxes would come with free security software, such as Tor, which has become popular in China and other countries for anonymous browsing. In fact, one Tor project is developing an inexpensive home router for anonymity. Email among Freedom Box users would be encrypted using open-source software, perhaps employing public key encryption.
Moglen notes that each Freedom Box would maintain its own log of communications activities, rather than storing logs on public Internet servers, where user activities can be monitored by governments and corporations up to no good. If a government or corporation wants to spy on your activities, it can go get a search warrant, Moglen says in his presentations.
Moglen envisions the first version of the Freedom Box costing about $100. But with further refinements and economies of scale, he expects them to eventually cost half that amount, or less.
Moglen has helped create the FreedomBox Foundation to develop the servers. He says that if the group receives funding “slightly north of $500,000,” the first servers could be available in a year.
Moglen’s view is that much of the software and hardware required to create Freedom Boxes already exists, and he's right. Also, many open-source applications already could accomplish much of what Moglen wants.
But can developers create a small, inexpensive communications server that's so easy almost anyone can use and maintain it? Most consumers have enough problems dealing with Microsoft Windows and figuring out how to use common anti-malware software and software firewalls, let alone tackling something as scary as a server.
And how many people are so concerned that they would create their own "people's Internet"? Probably not many in the United States, Western Europe, and other democratic nations and regions. But that leaves a host of countries where despots rule, and where Freedom Boxes could be very valuable communications tools.
What if dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Freedom Boxes could be smuggled into countries with despotic regimes? Each of these servers could boot up with an online tutorial, and perhaps even include email addresses and phone numbers for support by Freedom Box experts around the world.
Many techies and freedom-loving politicians despair over Internet crackdowns and fulsome data-mining activities by advertisers. Perhaps the Freedom Box can help.
— Alan Reiter, President, Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing
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