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In <1.5.4.16.19970113191647.098f90d2@popd.ix.netcom.com>, on 01/13/97 at 08:12 PM,
Clay Olbon II
I just caught the news reports of Newt Gingrich's cell phone calls being taped by "a little old retired couple" with a scanner. These were then given to a congressman, who gave them to a newspaper.
The take on this that we won't hear is: "This is outrageous! Why don't cell-phones offer encryption to ensure our privacy?"
Unfortunately, I think crypto is still so far beneath the public consciousness that the obvious solution to these sorts of problems is ignored in favor of the "there oughta be a law" non-solution. (Of course, in this case there is a law!) What I really hope this incident spawns is a market ...
There is a very basic reason that cell phones are not encrypted; the government does not want them encrypted. Many an arrest has been made from infromation gathered from cell/wireless phone conversations. AFAIK the police do not even need a search warent to do this. With the cell phone industry regulated by the FCC I doubt that you will ever see cell phone's with built in encryption. As far as the general public is concerned the majority are sheep. They are quite content to know that it is illegal for their neighbor to listen in and ofcource Big Brother would only listen to those nasty drug dealers & mobsters. - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting WebExplorer & Java Enhanced!!! Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice Look for MR/2 Tips & Rexx Scripts Get Work Place Shell for Windows!! PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii@amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info - ----------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: OS/2: Logic, not magic. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMtsA7o9Co1n+aLhhAQHPBwQAyVXV7QHOwMbQH0doPqVYfz3KV7RSSSrb dGnVNc1IQ1zAc5mYSJlh6wyrf38Lkm4rXsFOp29KYHdSEnenXC51+IWJRNmnWTZW VKgAXlUlvdISb3loAvatsrsv1Ha+n3/aF+dKoxSoPI2K+fmhwUU/vRmoZuoMt4/Z fd62Z8Wvs1E= =fa4Q -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----