Repurposing the Darknet for lighter purposes

With the daily news reporting ever increasing mass surveillance and data collection by alphabet soup agencies it is not surprising that many online users are interested in considering alternative modes of connectedness and communication while retaining the utility and convenience of a much beloved internet. Darknets (a hidden but very real parallel internet), when used in socially acceptable ways, are suggested by some as a means of avoiding the “spynet” (aka regular internet). The idea is that rather than relegating the vast anonymous cyberspace of darknets as synonymous for a haven of miscreants, and until more data protection and privacy promoting laws are enacted, people may at least in part decide to develop a community presence or otherwise utilize the net (e.g. personal web searches) in more securely encrypted and anonymized settings. This can also be used to encourage anything from a peer-to-peer early internet community feel to setting up a Tor service to allow a safe and secure venue for whistleblowers to reveal misdeeds of their employers without threat of retaliatory measures, as news agencies such as The New Yorker has done. It is interesting seeing these active processes that can be taken to maintain privacy, although the fact that Darknet is also being used for nefarious ways (e.g. drug dealings, pedophilia, etc) raises the tensions of where to maintain the balance between privacy and surveillance.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/darknet-bright-ideas-lurk-in-the-internets-dark-places-20140214-32rb8.html