Data haven

A data haven is a computer or network that holds data protected by both technical means (i.e., encryption) as well as legal means -- typically, being located in a sovereign nation with no extradition laws, and with no or poorly-enforced laws against the most common uses of data havens:

• free (political) speech (against Internet censorship in countries such as the People's Republic of China, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia)
• whistleblowing
• software or speech that violates laws such as the DMCA
• copyright infringement
• circumventing data protection laws
• online gambling
• pornography

A general rule among many founders or operators of data havens is that they should not be used to facilitate spam, terrorism or child pornography. Of course some data haven operators operate data havens for these very purposes.

HavenCo (centralized) and Freenet (decentralized) are two modern-day data havens, with the former utilizing the Principality of Sealand, six miles off the coast of Britain.

This use of the term was coined by Bruce Sterling in his 1989 novel Islands in the Net, and further expanded upon by Neal Stephenson in Cryptonomicon.

See also

• Anonymity
• Pseudonymity
• Crypto-anarchism
• Crypto-society
• Anonymous P2P