The police tap JAP

It turns out, however, that access is not always anonymous; the JAP system went down for a few days in mid-August for the addition of new "security features." Those features, it seems, include a means by which the German police can determine the real originating IP address for accesses to a destination site of their choice. This access requires the usual formalities - court orders and such - but it does, regardless, violate the spirit of an anonymous proxy system. This is the sort of thing that users of an anonymous proxy are trying to get away from.

Since JAP is free software, people who were paying attention were able to see the new "security features" as they were checked in to the CVS repository. This transparency is, of course, one of the reasons why we like free software in the first place. We should remember, however, that there was nothing forcing the JAP developers to commit their changes to a public repository, and there is still no assurance that the JAP servers are running the same software as that found in the repository or on the download site. Entrusting your privacy to a remote system over which you have no control remains a risky thing to do.

See the JAP project's press release for more information on this incident.

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