Swedish politicians offer untraceable internet

Is your ISP making the open sea of the internet feel more like a fishbowl? Are you sick of seeing your searches handed out to the general public? Then you live in the wrong country (much like me) - in Sweden, you can now add darknet service to your internet for a whopping 5 euros per month.

A political party known as the Swedish Pirate Party (they have a party for that?! I really do live in the wrong country) has introduced a commercial darknet for those with broadband internet access. The darknet allows users to connect to a high-speed VPN network provided by Relakks that does not log any of the user's information and assigns a random, phony IP. Just in case you didn't feel that was enough, though, the service uses full 128-bit encryption for all transmissions.

Theoretically, it would cost far more to track down any user (or even find out what they were transmitting) than it would ever be worth, and that's assuming that the VPN providers would even be willing to help - which they're not.

Rickard Falkvinge, chairman of the Pirate Party, had this to say:
"There are many legitimate reasons to want to be completely anonymous on the Internet. If the government can check everything each citizen does, nobody can keep the government in check. The right to exchange information in private is fundamental to the democratic society. Without a safe and convenient way of accessing the Internet anonymously, this right is rendered null and void."

He further elaborated his point, stating that "the only way to enforce today's unbalanced copyright laws is to monitor all private communications over the Internet. Today's copyright regime cannot coexist with an open society that guarantees the right to private communication."

Software that is used to protect the identities of subscribers has gone through some rigorous testing, and also through one very important filter - no software written in the US or by US manufacturers was permitted. This wasn't done as an insult, but strictly business - it assures that the US government cannot put pressure on the code writers to find loopholes.

The Swedish Pirate Party is considered the largest political movement in Sweden aside from Parliament, and is actively going to be running in elections come Fall of 2006. But if you don't live in Sweden, there's still good news - the service is available worldwide, just head on over to the Relakks website. However, the service itself may be completely illegal in your area, so check closely.

Got a thought on the announcement? Can't wait to get your darknet? Live in Sweden and want to mock the rest of our archaic governments? Tell us about it in our forums.