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0.
General
This
website, and the software which it describes, are built on the premise
that complete privacy and freedom of expression are basic, undefeatable
and sacred human rights.
1.
Visits to This Website
1.1
Access Logs
Temporary access logs are occasionally kept for some visits to this website,
but only for the purposes of monitoring the performance of this site's
server. No reverse DNS lookups are ever done on your IP address. Logs
are frequently and promptly deleted. If you feel mistrustful, you are
advised to visit this site via an anonymising proxy server, such as Anonymizer.
1.2
Cookies
This site is a cookie-free zone. Simple as that. No cookies whatsoever
will be created, received or sent to or from your browser, now, or at
any time in the future.
1.3
Active Content
All pages on this website are completely static, and totally free of JavaScript,
'web bugs' or any other scripting or other implanted mechanisms which
might compromise your privacy.
2.
Behaviour of FreeWeb
2.1
Direct Internet Accesses
FreeWeb does NOT 'phone home'. The only time FreeWeb makes direct external
internet connections is for the purpose of 'proxying' requests to the
mainstream World Wide Web on behalf of your browser, in cases where you
request a page on the mainstream Web.
If you feel mistrustful, you are advised to use a connection monitoring
program (which is built into some firewalls) and verify this for yourself.
2.2
Internet Accesses via Freenet
In order to do its job, FreeWeb needs to connect to the Internet via the
Freenet software installed on your system. The only time FreeWeb causes
any information to be sent out from your computer is when you use the
FreeWeb Publisher to publish a website. In such cases, the only information
that gets sent out is (i) the actual files comprising your website, and
(ii) two small Freenet key files, containing only the information required
for others to browse your published websites on the ".free"
domain.
2.3
Interaction With Your System
Apart from the Operating System, plus the Freenet Software, FreeWeb does
not interact with any other software on your computer. It does NOT access
your system registry (except for the barest minimum of uninstaller info).
It does NOT scan your hard disk, except for scanning directories that
YOU choose to publish.
2.4
Saved Files
FreeWeb keeps a 'cache' of all websites you visit. This is done for your
convenience, so that you can find those sites faster the next time you
visit them. If you want to clear the cache, then open a subdirectory called
'dns' in your FreeWeb installation directory, and remove whatever files
you choose. It will be obvious which files relate to which sites.
In regard to the sites you publish, FreeWeb must store some information
somewhere, so it can properly maintain these sites.. All records of published
sites are stored in a single file called fwpublish.ini, which is
located in the FreeWeb installation directory. If you have reason to believe
that the security of your system is questionable, you are advised to back
up this file and delete it from your disk (via 'file-shredding', since
normal file deletion will leave the file on your disk). Only have this
file on your system when you actually need to use FreeWeb Publisher. Better
still, please consider installing FreeWeb and your published sites on
a removable disk such as a floppy or CD-RW, and running it from there.
2.5
Other records of your FreeWeb activity
Even though within FreeWeb, it's easy to eliminate all records of your
accesses to FreeWeb, be warned that your browser and operating system
keep records, in several places, of your general internet access. Sadly,
this will include all your accesses to FreeWeb. Therefore, if you have
any concern that other people's knowing your use of FreeWeb may cause
you difficulties, you are advised to use a program such as Evidence
Eliminator to rid your system of all records of usage and file access;
also, ensure that you regularly 'shred' the free space on all your hard
disks, so that deleted files can not be recovered..
3.
Your Usage Of FreeWeb
3.1
Confidentiality
FreeWeb is designed for simplicity, anonymity, freedom of expression and
total privacy. There is absolutely no facility for FreeWeb software to
monitor the actual content of information retrieved or published. FreeWeb
cannot prevent illegal usage more than web browsers such as Internet Explorer
and Netscape, or search engines such as Yahoo and Altavista, can. Unlike
Napster, which runs from a central server, FreeWeb has absolutely no ability
to monitor the traffic of information.
3.2
Warning - Potential Privacy Hazards
Any FreeWeb pages or files you request do not come from a server. Therefore,
any requests you make can not trigger any programs on any other computers
(apart from Freenet software on various nodes worldwide).
However, it is possible for unscrupulous website designers to put code
into their FreeWeb sites which causes accesses to computers on the mainstream
World-Wide Web (for example, web bugs, or even any image which is sourced
from the mainstream Web). If this occurs, your anonymity may be breached.
Also, if FreeWeb sites invoke resources on the mainstream Web, this may
cause an exchange of cookies, which can reveal any amount of personal
information about you, including name, address, email, credit card info,
bank details etc. (Note, though, that these hazards are NOT unique to
FreeWeb - the mainstream Web is arguably much more dangerous). Therefore,
if you have reason to mistrust a FreeWeb site you are visiting, you can
protect your anonymity by temporarily setting your firewall to prevent
all mainstream web access by FreeWeb Agent.
At present, work is
being done on making FreeWeb Agent capable of working in with the Freenet
FProxy filtering feature.
Another
potential security hazard is pages which contain script code such as JavaScript.
If you are concerned about this, then set your browser to disable all
javascript while you are browsing FreeWeb.
It is envisaged that future versions of FreeWeb will have features build
in to arrest such potential breaches of your anonymity.
You can
make your surfing safer by disabling cookies and javascript in your browser.
But the
best privacy protection is to temporarily configure FreeWeb Agent to block
all access to the mainstream Web. This can be conveniently done by double-clicking
on the FreeWeb task tray icon.
4.
Third Party Access and Complaints
Since FreeWeb has no functionality to monitor its usage, there is nothing
which can be done to resolve issues relating to the content which is stored
on FreeWeb, or anywhere else in Freenet. Therefore, it is completely beyond
the capability of the developers of FreeWeb to respond to any complaints
from third parties. Any such complaints will be disregarded.
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