A few days ago, I posted a note to the cypherpunks list from a human rights group in Central Europe, regarding their use of PGP. Here is a followup note from the same guy. I have edited it to preserve his and his group's anonymity. This version may be freely circulated. -Philip Zimmermann Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 10:35:00 +0000 (GMT)
From: [name and email address deleted] Subject: New Message from Europe To: prz@ACM.ORG
I hope our story helps. Here is a little tale of pre-PGP days. In the bad old days before we had PGP and before the revolution in Romania, we used to send couriers to Romania to meet with dissidents and help collate information about their troubles. Organisings such trips was a nightmare because briefing couriers to be able to find people, and then bring out accurate reports was quite difficult. Any document was liable to be confiscated, and any notebook with names and addresses would be taken if found by the Police and every Romanian in the book would be visited by the security Police. Yet sometimes we would be given large files of documents to take to the Human Rights Agencies in the West, and couriers would have to visit several dissidents. As Foreigner's you were required to stay in designated hotels, it was illegal to stay in a private home. You were followed, and meetings with dissidents were a stressful experience for everyone. We eventually started to use handheld psion computers to carry information about travel directions, name and addresses, and to input files etc. No sensitive information was carried in the memory of the psion but in a separate memory cartridge. The cartridge resembled a battery, and the psion looked like a sophisticated calculator, so we relied on the Romanians ignorance of that technology, and on keeping the two items separate when travelling. This worked very well until the late eighties when a courier was arrested at the Romanian\Hungarian border, during the initial search the memory cartridge was overlooked, and as such the courier was able to keep the memory cartridge. Later in the day, he was being walked between two buildings when he had opportunity to throw the memory cartridge into a fast moving river ! All very heady stuff, but everyone back in the office was off the wall for several days until the courier was eventually released and able to confirm the destruction of the memory cartridge. Since PGP, we have been able sleep better at nights. The following story is not for publication as we could easily be identified... [story deleted] ... So as you can see the issue of Privacy here is not about tax evasion or child pornography, but the on-going determination by various groups including parts of the media, and Government Agencies, to know everything and to then to profit by such knowledge financially or by the destruction of those opposed to them. In this part of the world PGP is a common sense idea that protects ordinary people from those who have power that they are prepared to abuse. There is no Constitution, enforced by capable courts in this part of the world able to protect us from such abuses, so we must have the right to protect ourselves from abuse. If the NSC considers PGP a restricted weapon system that can't be legally exported, why can't at least Americans who have the right to bear arms have an ongoing guaranteed right to keep uncompromised encryption\PGP under their pillow at night along with their magnum. If you are allowed fatal force to protect your physical person, why can't you have equally powerful protection for your personal thoughts. Now I am no fan of the Gun Lobby, but if Americans can ensure their right to uncompromised encryption, the rest of us can argue for the same more effectively. Anyway I must get back to work... Do keep in touch sometimes.. Best regards [name deleted] ---