Version: 1.3
Last Revision: 2018-01-01
Originally Authored: 2017-06-24
In 1996, John Perry Barlow penned his now famous "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace". Since then, we've seen privacy violations which have been attributed to instigating human rights violations. Even the UN recognizes the "Right to Privacy in the Digital Age". This document describes one possible solution to this problem, namely the basic tenets to decentralize the internet in a manner consistent with the common good and good security practice.
- Objects MUST be autonomous so they can be acted upon individually (high cohesion and low coupling)
- Objects, including network transports, MUST be encrypted by default
- Objects MUST be private by default
- Services MUST be opt-in
Examples of objects include, but are not limited to:
- peers and connection information
- transport conduits
- posts -- the content and the poster
- people and personal details
- identity information including user information, IP address, and any personally identifiable information
- financial information
- statistics
User Stories to consider:
- As a user concerned about my privacy, I want to be able to post content without my identity (including IP) to be revealed unless I choose to do so, so I can maintain my privacy.
- Notes
- This requires transports to be encrypted for the conveyance of public data along with peering data. The contents of the user's post may be unencrypted at the end location but we must maintain full security during the transport process.
- Notes
- Objects MUST be decentralized in nature, or support decentralization of an object store
- Objects MUST be designed for high latency environments
- Objects MUST be capable of operating in near real-time
- Non-network objects MAY be blockable by end users but network conduits MUST NOT be blockable to ensure availability
User Stories to consider:
- As a user concerned that content might be blocked by a country, I want all content to be freely distributed, such that I can view material that may be denied in my present location.
- Objects MUST be immutable to guarantee integrity
- Objects MUST contain, and check for, a strong hash to demonstrate integrity
- Components MUST be open source
- Components MUST have APIs where appropriate
- There MUST NOT be any backdoors for any reason
- Why is decentralization only listed in the availability section and not elsewhere?
- While decentralization contributes to confidentiality, privacy, and integrity, to reduce duplication decentralization was placed in availability as it is a hard and fast requirement for this category.
- I want to block objectionable and illegal material
- Since objects are autonomous, they can be blocked. However, blocking weakens the overall availability of the network. The default stance of this document is to permit all network traffic while allowing end users to block non-network objects. The author feels this is the best compromise between the two opposing viewpoints without violating the tenets.
If you develop a system, network, application, or component which respects the above tenets you are encouraged to declare your compliance with this document.
Contributions to this document are welcomed. Together, we can build something usable worthwhile. See the CONTRIBUTING document in this repository.
- Joey Stanford -- Initial Author
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.