Today, Monday, July 29, Dorothy Denning begins her debate vs. John Gilmore over The Absolute Right to Privacy on Wired Online's Brain Tennis site. Do citizens of the world have an "unalienable right" to privacy - or are there reasons why governments ought to have access to our communications? This debate will run daily through August 7. Follow along at http://www.wired.com/braintennis/
I especially like Dr. Denning's quote:
An encrypted global information infrastructure is without precedent in world history. It allows individuals and groups, anywhere and any time, to communicate securely and with total privacy across time and space.
Now _there_ is a goal to shoot for! Minor comments: First, a historical question: What percentage of telegraph traffic was encrypted in the 1910s? A global information infrastructure (encrypted or not) is without precedent in world history, is it not? I noticed that she said "allows", not "would allow". That contradicts <<I'm not ready to accept "the cat is out of the bag.">>, doesn't it? -- Marshall Marshall Clow Aladdin Systems <mailto:mclow@mailhost2.csusm.edu> "We're not gonna take it/Never did and never will We're not gonna take it/Gonna break it, gonna shake it, let's forget it better still" -- The Who, "Tommy"