Details on Tor statistics

The request was partially successful.

Dear City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit:

A recent Techdirt report quotes Commissioner Adrian Leppard as stating that the Tor anonymity network accounts for 90% of the Internet's traffic:

"Whether it’s Bitnet, The Tor – which is 90% of the Internet – peer-to-peer sharing, or the streaming capability worldwide. At what point does civil society say that as well as the benefits that brings, this enables huge risk and threat to our society that we need to take action against?"

(Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/201406...)

As a researcher actively working on Internet metrics, I find this comment very interesting and would therefore like to request the following:

- A copy of Commissioner Leppard's speech as delivered IP Enforcement Summit, where the comments were made
- Any studies or details of the methodology used to arrive at the 90% figure

If no study or methodology can be provided, I would appreciate an explanation as to the origin of the 90% figure.

If my request is denied, then you must justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Act, as per Section 17 of the FoI Act. Where you rely on a qualified exemption to withhold disclosure, you are obliged to consider the public interest in your decision and the refusal notice must explain not only which exemption applies and why, but also the public interest arguments addressed in reaching the decision.

I would be grateful if you would kindly acknowledge receipt of this request as recommended by the ICO ("It would be good practice to acknowledge receipt of requests and to refer to the 20 working day time limit, so that applicants know their request is being dealt with").

Yours sincerely,
Aaron Martin
Associate
Global Centre for Cyber Security Capacity Building

About Tor: https://www.torproject.org/about/overvie...

Grunblat Katy,

2 Attachments

Classification: NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED

Dear Mr Martin,

 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REF:  COL/14/454

 

I write in connection with your request for information dated 16 June 2014
in which you seek access to the following information:

 

A recent Techdirt report quotes Commissioner Adrian Leppard as stating
that the Tor anonymity network accounts for 90% of the Internet's traffic:

 

"Whether it’s Bitnet, The Tor – which is 90% of the Internet –
peer-to-peer sharing, or the streaming capability worldwide. At what point
does civil society say that as well as the benefits that brings, this
enables huge risk and threat to our society that we need to take action
against?"

 

(Source:
[1]https://www.techdirt.com/articles/201406...)

 

As a researcher actively working on Internet metrics, I find this comment
very interesting and would therefore like to request the following:

 

Q1. A copy of Commissioner Leppard's speech as delivered IP Enforcement
Summit, where the comments were made

 

Q2. Any studies or details of the methodology used to arrive at the 90%
figure

 

If no study or methodology can be provided, I would appreciate an
explanation as to the origin of the 90% figure.

 

If my request is denied, then you must justify all deletions by reference
to specific exemptions of the Act, as per Section 17 of the FoI Act. Where
you rely on a qualified exemption to withhold disclosure, you are obliged
to consider the public interest in your decision and the refusal notice
must explain not only which exemption applies and why, but also the public
interest arguments addressed in reaching the decision.

 

I would be grateful if you would kindly acknowledge receipt of this
request as recommended by the ICO ("It would be good practice to
acknowledge receipt of requests and to refer to the 20 working day time
limit, so that applicants know their request is being dealt with").

 

            Questions 1 and 2

 

Commissioner Leppard did not refer to a speech at the IP Enforcement
Summit, however a Power Point presentation is available should you wish to
have a copy of this. However, please note it makes no reference to the
dark web.

 

With reference to the 90% quote, this was raised in dialogue during the
question and answer session of the debate. The City of London Police holds
no information relevant to this question.

 

The Commissioner released the following comments on Twitter which you may
also wish to refer to.

 

‘Just to clarify, while speaking at the [2]#IPSummit14 about the benefits
vs risks of the internet, Commissioner Leppard mentioned the Tor whilst
referring to accessing the Deep Web and its risk to society. With the
global scale of online theft, money laundering & the victimisation of
vulnerable people in our society, it is important to debate how best to
protect society from the risks the internet brings.’

 

Should you have any further questions regarding your request, please
contact me via e-mail, letter or telephone, quoting the reference number
above.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Katy Grunblat

Senior Information Access Officer
Intelligence and Information Directorate
City of London Police | 182 Bishopsgate | London EC2M 4NP
T: +44 20 7601 2287| F: +44 20 7601 2088
Email: [3][email address]

 

 

Please consider the environment before printing my email

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/201406...
2. https://twitter.com/hashtag/IPSummit14?s...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/