Steve Bellovin (smb@research.att.com) wrote...

. . . to trace the the perturbations caused to the system. . . The more anonymity, and the more privacy cut-outs, the harder this is. . . To be sure, one can assert that the philosophical gains -- privacy, libertarianism, what have you -- are sufficiently important that this price is worth paying. . .

Steve, as you point out most of us are driven primarily by practical concerns. This is a philosophy: pragmatism. Beyond mind exercise, philosophy is valuable exactly to the extent it is practical. DBS increases freedom. Increased freedom is practical because it reduces risks -- of confiscation, imprisonment, and death -- and because it usually increases efficiency. All of these pragmatic considerations seem much more important than the ease of maintenance, at least to me. Doug