[atlas] Private Probes: What's the Point

Hi,

> On 22 Oct 2015, at 17:48, Daniel Karrenberg <daniel.karrenberg at ripe.net> wrote:
> 
> What I forgot to say in comparison with Encore because it was so obvious
> is this: of course the really big ethical problem with Encore is that
> the users participate without knowing about it. With Atlas the host of
> course indicates consent by hosting the probe and agreeing to Atlas
> rules. So I sure hope that you inform the hosting institution about the
> probe. ;-).

There’s much discussion on the Encore measurement and similar research efforts on measuring censorship. I missed this discussion here, but actually pointed to the Atlas infrastructure regarding sensible rules on bandwidth usage.

I think there is not much issue for Atlas, as you say, Atlas is a voluntary effort. Besides that, most hosts of Atlas probes are probably knowledgeable on networking, and network measurements. These people should know what they are getting into.

> PS: Personally I have been consciously ignorant of rules quite
> frequently and relied on my moral compass. However we all know that
> there are places where the consequences of ignoring rules can be quite
> unpleasant these days. :-(.

My impression is also that many many more people are getting into networking, network and Internet research. Many are from a new generation that did not experience the evolution of the Internet. Because of that, they may not have developed the same set of values that the older generation had. This means that these values now should be made explicit, which is a very hard thing to do… but I think it’s a very interesting process :)

Jeroen.