Editing Anonymous P2P (section)

==Motivation for anonymity==
There are many reasons to use anonymous P2P technology; most of them are generic to all forms of online anonymity.

P2P users who desire anonymity usually do so as they do not wish to be identified as a publisher (sender), or reader (receiver), of information. Common reasons include:
* [[Censorship]] at the local, organizational, or national level
* Personal privacy preferences such as preventing [[Website visitor tracking|tracking]] or [[data mining]] activities
* The material or its distribution is considered illegal or incriminating by possible [[eavesdropper]]s
* Material is legal but socially deplored, embarrassing or problematic in the individual's [[social world]]
* Fear of retribution (against [[whistleblower]]s, unofficial leaks, and [[activist]]s who do not believe in restrictions on information nor [[knowledge]])

A particularly open view on legal and illegal content is given in [https://web.archive.org/web/20090627205546/http://freenetproject.org/philosophy.html The Philosophy Behind Freenet].

Governments are also interested in anonymous P2P technology. The [[United States Navy]] funded the original [[onion routing]] research that led to the development of the [[Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]] network, which was later funded by the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] and is now developed by the non-profit organization The Tor Project, Inc.