Understanding new anonymity networks from a user's perspective
Erik Leo Archambault, Craig A. Shue · 2012
Anonymity networks have been studied for decades, from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Several anonymity systems, such as Tor and Java Anon Proxy (JAP), have become popular enough for general Internet users. However, both noticeably constrain the performance of a user's network and are considered too complicated for some users. A new anonymity service, SurfEasy, has created a physical device that purports to provide easy, high performance anonymous network usage. However, the service does not readily describe the anonymity system it uses. In this work, we examine Tor, JAP, and SurfEasy from a performance and end-user perspective to characterize the tradeoffs in these systems and to provide a guide for analyzing future anonymity systems. In doing so, we find that SurfEasy does indeed offer better browsing performance in some cases, but at the cost of robust anonymity.