The UK Parliament has published a report on the future of the darknet and online anonymity, and it came to the heartwarming conclusion that it would be "not seen as acceptable" to ban online anonymity systems. Furthermore, speaking specifically about Tor, the parliamentary report says it would be "technologically infeasible" to block people from using the service in the UK.

This report comes a couple of months after UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that encryption should be outlawed unless backdoor access is given to the government. "Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn't possible to read?" Cameron said. At the time his comments were in response to the January attacks in Paris; strong encryption, so the argument goes, prevents intelligence and security agencies from foiling the plots of terrorists and other bad actors.

The new report, prepared by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), mentions terrorism briefly—but it mostly focuses on how Tor Hidden Services allow for the creation of criminal markets (like Silk Road) and aid in whistleblowing, journalism, and circumvention of censorship. The report says that even if the UK government wanted to ban online anonymity, it isn't clear how it would go about doing it. "For example, when the Chinese government attempted to block access to Tor, Tor Project Inc. introduced secret entrance nodes to the Tor Network, called ‘bridges,' which are very difficult to block."

The report also looks at the possibility of allowing Tor but banning the Hidden Services feature (with Hidden Services, not only is your connection encrypted end-to-end, but it also never leaves the Tor network, making it hard to track the user). While Hidden Services are undoubtedly used for criminal services, the report points out that they're also very useful for whistleblowing, journalism, and for "non-criminal Tor users" who are looking for a "further layer of user security." In any case, even if a future UK government does want to outlaw Hidden Services, the report says "computer experts argue that any legislative attempt to preclude THS from being available in the UK over Tor would be technologically infeasible."

With the 2015 general election coming up in just a couple of months, digital policy will undoubtedly be a hot topic. Following the POST's report, it would be surprising if David Cameron sticks to his threat of abolishing backdoorless encryption.