-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Risks Digest 17.42 contains a Boston Globe story by Simson L. Garfinkel detailing the risks of the DejaNews (http://dejanew.com) Usenet archiving service. Not only does this service archive Usenet postings, it provides a "sophisticated system for retrieving 'author profiles' of the individuals who have posted messages." Many people are upset at what they view as an invasion of privacy. The article notes that:
But Usenet has actually been archived for a long time. Many schools, for example, have backup tapes containing Usenet messages dating back many years. Furthermore, says Madere, the National Security Agency and possibly other law enforcement or intelligence organizations has been cross-referencing and indexing Usenet for quite some time. "I know for a fact that they do have a text retrieval database which contains Usenet," says Madere. Creating a searchable index of Usenet " was already done for what people might consider to be sinister purposes," says Madere. "What we have done is made it searchable for useful purposes."
DejaNews will be archiving the alt, talk, and soc groups beginning later this year. That could result in many more people becoming upset at the service. It would appear that ISPs could make money from offering anonymous or pseudonymous accounts to their customers who would rather not have their postings used by marketers, employers, or neighbors. Providing protection from junk mailers is also more politically defensible in this society than providing protection from the government. This could be the catalyst for widely used and accepted pseudonymity on the net. Patrick May -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMI/tze5Yg08fDKehAQHUiwP/ePOJeQ5+R0+h0QQVJEziWFZvz0qCMooA 6jQXjDxWpxydas+KYCe9dt2yekjsh3Lr/bc+VHDtuTuE4l+m3HIFqk7uWxYk7iB6 fjIhuPMcmVSIg+lPOTFIlhfypmwE/6c4FHXiGb6N02Pc5E22BJFjECOdx1RNlJwv A8DbV/lAyGI= =FjnE -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----