On Sat, 4 Nov 1995 don@cs.byu.edu wrote:
An anonymous complainer writes:
Well, Perry, my opinion is that there is far too much noise on this list as it is. I have already seen my words drowned out by bellyaching over next to nothing.
POT-KETTLE-BLACK.
Also, since nothing you've written (in your commentary, as opposed to anonymous announcements or releases that most people use anonymity for here) indicates that you're using anonymity for any particular reason,
Hmmm, I'm not sure that anyone has an inherent right to question WHY a person seeks moments of anonymity or privacy. I don't believe that anyone should be placed on the defensive, for *choosing* to maintain some semblance of a personal life, or wishing to maintain some illusions that they might still have some shred of personal privacy left. Hopefully, we can still leave a man with his dignity. I should not have to defend my right to present my ideas as I believe are appropriate to the circumstances. My choice to present the idea, that an entire economic sector needs to carefully reevaluate their strategic choices, and their discovered hidden security attitudes -- will stand or fall strictly on its merits. The debate is not advanced in any way by attaching a reputation to the question. Like any other person, I have my skeletons, and I have my regrets. I certainly have unfinished, unresolved, issues that I need to tend to. In that sense, I am no different than any other man. I also realize that ultimately, I'll have to come forward from behind the veil of secrecy which is provided to me. This I will do, after I have reconciled my own security considerations. Please allow me the boundary and dignity to choose when, where, and in what form I choose to reveal myself. That inherent right, should be extended to any man, and no man should be called to account for his desire to maintain his personal privacy, no matter how arbitrary his reasons. Especially when he comes forward to challenge Goliath.
please stop so people can killfile you. Or send it from a nym at alpha.c2.org. I mean, the NSA has your real name anyway, what's the point...
At this time, I don't feel that a bi-directional private communications channel is needed. I have no need for a "nym". People who need to contact me, can. People who would like to know a bit about me, can. Netscape has my address. So does AT&T. And reputations aren't pertinent. (Although, I will say, that the disappearing here-again, gone again, internet draft at ds.internic.net is simply childish, and I'm certain that it was just routine "file maintenance" that caused the flicker.) The ball isn't in my court, it's in theirs. Netscape and AT&T are some of the primary parties who will have to take the hit for the fiasco that they find themselves in. For now, I'll leave my communication channels with them open, rather than letting my mail queue fill more than it already has. Email that is already overqueued. I don't really envy the two companies' position. No one expects to find as significant a security flaw as my anonymous email to this list detailed at this stage of code Burn-In, and I don't take any pleasure in facing the unenviable task of informing ANY party that a Trojan Horse has been engineered into the fabric of an existing globally installed code base. No one does. And as the messenger, I (hope) I don't have anything to fear, from the NSA or any other foreign group that would seek to pursue its own agenda within the borders of sovereign Canada. I really don't think that the NSA is "evil incarnate", as some list subscribers do. They have their intelligence and know how to use it. Usually, they use it prudently. If I did have any worries about the NSA, then I might take some elementary precautions. I certainly wouldn't have my terminal screen pointing towards the twelve odd feet of open glazing that sits behind me, as I currently do. Privacy can't simply be reduced to "a desire to hide from the NSA", just as security isn't something which is simply provided by licensing from RSA. Look to the message rather than the messenger. Alice de 'nonymous ... ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E.