Privacy In File Sharing Networks
Peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) systems like Gnutella, KaZaA, and eDonkey/eMule, has become extremely popular in recent years, with the estimated user population in the millions. An academic research paper pointed out some weaknesses of two popular P2P networks in protecting user's privacy. The research analyzed Gnutella and eMule protocols and found weaknesses in the protocol; many of the issues found in these networks are fundamental and probably common on other P2P networks. Users of file sharing networks, such as eMule and Gnutella, are subject to monitoring of their activity. Clients may be tracked by IP address, DNS name, software version they use, files they share, queries they initiate, and queries they answer to.
Much is known about the network structure, routing schemes, performance load and fault tolerance of P2P systems in general and Gnutella in particular. This document concentrates on the user privacy that reveals by the Gnutella and eMule networks. It might be surprising, but the eMule protocol does not provide much privacy to the users, although it is a P2P protocol which is supposed to be decentralized.
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