Bridging the gap between anonymous email and anonymous web browsing

Purpose This paper aims to propose an anonymous webbrowsing protocol that harnesses some of the advantages of storeandforward anonymity solutions whilst retaining some of the interactive properties of web browsing. Anonymity research on high latency, storeandforward mediums such as email have led to comparatively wellresearched anonymity technologies. However, similar achievements have proven to be more difficult for lowlatency communications such as web browsing. Designmethodologyapproach A review of existing anonymity solutions notes the advantages of mix technologies versus the advantages offered by Onion Routing. A solution is presented that features a combined approach of both solutions. Findings The proposed protocol differentiates between web requests and web responses a request is treated as a storeandforward message whilst the response is handled as a data stream. Originalityvalue The solution described can be used by existing anonymous web browsing solutions in order to improve the level of anonymity whilst minimising the overhead of anonymously distributing web content.