[LINK] https/metadata

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Tue Dec 6 15:02:41 AEDT 2016


I don't think I'm in disagreement, but it seems to me that the last question would benefit from a bit of refining.

What the term 'metadata' reasonably means depends a great deal on the specifics of the situation;  and 'your metadata' is a problematical notion.

Very broadly, metadata is everything that's in the headers and any associated data, but nothing that's in the body of the message.

However, each node on the path between the two parties sees a somewhat different set of headers.  

So it makes sense to talk about a particular node's metadata, but less sense to refer to the requester's metadata or the message's metadata.

______________________________________________________________________

At 14:39 +1100 6/12/16, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>A somewhat technical question.
>
>If you use https, the contents of your interchange are encrypted.
>However, the fact that you have gone to a particular IP address is still
>in the clear.
>
>So if you go to www.nastysite.com and use https, the metadata would
>still show that you have had a session with that website.
>
>Correct?
>
>However, if you create a VPN first e.g. via tor, the fact that you have
>visited www.nastysite.com (using http or https) would not be visible in
>your metadata.
>
>Correct?
>
>Thanks.
>
>-- 
>
>Regards
>brd
>
>Bernard Robertson-Dunn
>Sydney Australia
>email: brd at iimetro.com.au
>web:   www.drbrd.com
>web:   www.problemsfirst.com
>Blog:  www.problemsfirst.com/blog
>
>_______________________________________________
>Link mailing list
>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
>http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link

-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/
			             
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Tel: +61 2 6288 6916                        http://about.me/roger.clarke
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Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law            University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University



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