Editing Data haven

A '''data haven''', like a [[corporate haven]] or [[tax haven]], is a [[Safety|refuge]] for uninterrupted or unregulated [[data]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/06/icelands_media_law | newspaper=The Economist | title=The Switzerland of bits | date=June 17, 2010 | access-date=July 13, 2017 | archive-date=February 2, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202064442/https://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/06/icelands_media_law | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2013/07/04/gov-spying-boosts-swiss-data-center-revenues/ | work=Forbes | title=Gov Spying Boosts Swiss Data Center Revenues | date=April 7, 2013 | access-date=August 26, 2017 | archive-date=February 5, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205124951/http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomgroenfeldt/2013/07/04/gov-spying-boosts-swiss-data-center-revenues/ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/|title=Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers|publisher=|access-date=2010-12-30|archive-date=2010-02-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216001107/http://www.niemanlab.org/2010/02/iceland-aims-to-become-an-offshore-haven-for-journalists-and-leakers/|url-status=live}}</ref> Data havens are locations with [[law|legal environment]]s that are friendly to the concept of a [[computer network]] freely holding data and even protecting its content and associated information. They tend to fit into three categories: a physical [[nation|locality]] with weak information-system enforcement and [[extradition]] laws, a physical locality with intentionally strong protections of data, and [[Virtuality|virtual]] domains designed to secure data via technical means (such as [[encryption]]) regardless of any legal environment.

[[Tor (anonymity network)|Tor]]'s [[.onion|onion space]], [[I2P]] (both hidden services), [[HavenCo]] (centralized), and [[Freenet]] (decentralized) are four models of modern-day virtual data havens.

==Purposes of data havens==
Reasons for establishing data havens include access to [[Freedom of speech|free political speech]] for users in countries where [[Internet censorship|censorship]] of the [[Internet]] is practiced.

Other reasons can include:
* [[Whistleblower|Whistleblowing]]
* Distributing [[software]], data or speech that violates laws such as the [[Digital Millennium Copyright Act|DMCA]]
* [[Copyright infringement]]
* Circumventing [[Information privacy|data protection]] laws
* [[Online gambling]]
* [[Pornography]]
* [[Cybercrime]]
* [[Privacy]]
* Geopolitical tension

==History of the term==
The 1978 report of the British government's Data Protection Committee expressed concern that different [[privacy]] standards in different countries would lead to the transfer of personal data to countries with weaker protections; it feared that Britain might become a "data haven".<ref name="NewSci1978">{{cite news|last=Michael|first=James|title=New Report on Computer Data Banks|work=[[New Scientist]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tTs5-WSNM6AC&pg=PA432|date=November 9, 1978|accessdate=November 29, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Also in 1978, Adrian Norman published a mock consulting study on the feasibility of setting up a company providing a wide range of data haven services, called "Project Goldfish".<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.adminet.co.uk/clients/ANAAL/goldfish.pdf |url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110903080638/http://www.adminet.co.uk/clients/ANAAL/goldfish.pdf
|archive-date=2011-09-03
|last=Norman |first=Adrian
|title=Project Goldfish
|publisher=IPC Science and Technology Press
|date=September 1978
}}</ref>

Science fiction novelist [[William Gibson]] used the term in his novels ''[[Count Zero]]'' and ''[[Mona Lisa Overdrive]]'', as did Bruce Sterling in ''[[Islands in the Net]]''.  The 1990s segments of [[Neal Stephenson]]'s 1999 novel ''[[Cryptonomicon]]'' concern a small group of entrepreneurs attempting to create a data haven.

==See also==
* [[Corporate haven]]
* [[Crypto-anarchism]]
* [[International Modern Media Institute]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Computer law]]
[[Category:Anonymity networks]]
[[Category:Crypto-anarchism]]
[[Category:Internet privacy]]
[[Category:Data laws]]