Law enforcement

JonDonym does not make it impossible to uncover individual users, as there is no such thing as a 100% security. However, such a disclosure is by magnitudes more difficult than for other VPN or proxy services, as this would require the cooperation of several states and organizations.

JonDonym is no technology for preventing law enforcement on the internet. In very serious cases, it is possible to uncover the abuse of Mix services. User connections may be individually observed, if all operators of a Mix cascade get such an official order, valid in their respective country (in Germany accourding to §100a/b StPO). The official order has to provide an identification feature for individually observed connections (like the IP address used by the observed person or something else).

However, the independence of JonDonym operators vastly lowers the danger of an illegitimate law enforcement done by non-democratic states or arbitrary individual public officers. Any disclosure basically needs the cooperation of all operators of a Mix cascade. This was never realized for premium mix cascades in the past.

Surveillance reports

Each year, we will publish a short report of all surveillance actions that were taken and have been reported to us by mix operators.

• In 2019, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2018, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2017, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2016, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2015, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2014 there has been one surveillance court order by German law enforcement. We were not able to provide the requested data.
• In 2013, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2012 there has been one surveillance court order to all German mix operators and JonDos GmbH. It concerned one JonDonym account number which was known to the law enforcement agency before start of surveillance. No premium cascade and no free cascade was able to provide the requested communication data because not all operators of any cascade got a court order.
• In 2011, no new surveillance court order was given to any operator. The surveillance court order from 2010 (published last year) was going on over turn of the year.
• In 2010 there has only been one surveillance court order to single mix operators. It concerned a handful JonDonym account numbers which was known to the law enforcement agency before start of surveillance.
• In 2009, there has been a surveillance court order to single Mix operators. A total of two web sites or e-mail providers, respectively, where affected. The observation has been stopped after the court order, which was renewed once, expired (after four months altogether) and affected two free mix cascades.
• In 2008, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2007, no surveillance court order was given to any operator.
• In 2006, there has been one surveillance court order to single Mix operators. A few exactly specified web addresses were affected. The observation has been stopped after the court order expired (one month) and affected two free mix cascades.

If single mix operators inform JonDos GmbH about a surveillance court order then that does not mean JonDonym as a whole has been under surveillance or JonDos GmbH was involved. Rather, single operators had to comply with these orders.