CDR: RE: The Market for Privacy

--Hushpart_boundary_iWCDbgAikNCcbLlDAWpLjBKeDnioBxsF Content-type: text/plain WOW - well I have to start out this post with a REALLY STRONG sense of vindication!! DAMN it feels good to be right!! 4 months ago (circa July) I made (using a differnet hushmail nym - forgot the password to that one so I had to make a new one..) a number of posts to this list of the subject of: (1) why ZKS doesn't really protect privacy in the first place, (2) why privacy is a MAJOR ecnomic issue, and (3) why, (b/c of (2)) the real market for privacy is on the business side of the equation, not in wimpy pieces of consumer client software like Freedom.. At the time I equated privacy with the Code of Fair Information Practices (CFIP), and explained at a NUMBER of businesses would be MORE THAN WILLING to put these principles into practice at their enterprise b/c of the massive REVENUE potential this could create.. At the time, I was pretty much totally dismissed.. every point I made was ridiculed as being short-sighted or a pipe dream and, esp concerning the fact that businesses would be willing to put in place CFIP, I was told that I was f***ing out of my mind and that that made no sense whatsoever.. How DELICIOUS to watch (in FOUR SHORT MONTHS) ZKS TRY to turn around their whole business to basically the same principles that I outlined in those earlier postings!! Enough w/ the revenge, though -- let's proceed to dismantle Tim May's inept, knuckle-dragger arguments on these issues..
This is a recurring theme, and one we've talked about many times.
No, completely wrong, as usual. The REAL market for crypto and security has ALWAYS BEEN and WILL ALWAYS BE in the financial services sector. These people have absolutely enormous amounts of money at stake, and in so far as cryptography and security can reduce the risk of bad loans, of theft, of a gazillion other risks that financial services companies face, these companies will continue to operate at the forefront of global cryptography technology.. Anonymity has NO MARKET in this world outside of free speech.. (I'm sure I'll be ridiculed for this again too, but in 4 short months something else will happen to vindicate me.. I'll let you guys know when it does..)
Good security should be so seamless the user doesn't even know it's there. SSL satisfies this design requirement. So does Verisign. Freedom doesn't. Freedom sux.. it's like, it's always there and I can't uninstall that hideous piece of software off my machine fast enough..
Privacy can and is an enormously powerful tool for global consumers, and like Garfinkel says, maybe it will take years to realize this economic reality, but it will be realized, sooner or later.. just not in the form that Tim May thinks..
I agree - I've always found the ZKS ad campaign to be rather distasteful in fact.. (the bar codes on people.. esp since the Internet doens't really operate by bar coding people and even if it did, ZKS wouldn't be able to do anything about it.. it's called FALSE ADVERTISING.. the FTC might have a thing or two to say about that..)
Everything up to here is basically the ravings of a madman, so I'll leave it alone..
That's a good point and that's basically what I've always said about "nyms".. you don't really need ZKS for a nym (Hushmail works fine for me), and even when you DO get one, the only thing it's good for is free speech, never for privacy. (Ever notice how privacy discussions are always framed in the context of commerce? Like what are the privacy policies of that bank or HMO? Or what is Amazon doing w/ my purchasing profile? AND YES, there are privacy threats from government, but you're never going to be able to *make money* by battling the government (like ZKS was trying to).. since we're talking about a business here (ZKS), I'll keep the discussion limited to commerce..)
The real market for robust security and privacy tools is, as always, elsewhere.
Financial services..
In short, for crypto anarchy.
No, this market is actually really really boring. It's too tiny and the opportunity for recurring revenue streams is too small and ... no.. I won't rip it apart any further..
Not for fluff.
MojoNation seems to be a lower burn-rate run at the real low hanging fruit.
It's (vaguely) the right approach to privacy (going after the enterprise), and I'm sure ZKS has been pursuing for some time now (probably since I made those postings back in July). But in terms of being delivering privacy tools to the enterprise, they're already behind companies like Privada and PrivacyRight. I mean, granted I slammed Privada earlier for their weenie knock-off of Freedom, but at least they've been pursuing the enterprise market for some time now in earnest.. and as for PrivacyRight, it seems they've already made substantial inroads into the health care and financial services markets that ZKS claims it wants to pursue.. So what is ZKS really selling to enterprises? Is it anonymity software like Freedom? No business will ever buy this.. is it fancy, schmancy cryptography software? Again, I've sold security products to enterprises for years, and every CIO in America knows that security is not isomorphic to cryptography. No hacker in the world bothers trying to crack 40-bit encryption when he knows there are users on the enterprise network dumb enough to have username "Tim" and password "May".. this is a much easier way to subvert the network.. Security starts with good cryptography, but encompasses a great deal more (lots of policy, for one). Privacy starts w/ good security, but also encompasses a great deal more than plain, old vanilla security.. For this reason, if all ZKS is selling is cryptography, then good luck! you're already way behind the times.. And if ZKS is selling consulting hours, then thanks, but I think I'll take my budget to a place where they already have the whole privacy picture in focus (like PriceWaterhouse Cooper or Ernst & Young), not to a place where they just brag about cryptography all day long.. --Hushpart_boundary_iWCDbgAikNCcbLlDAWpLjBKeDnioBxsF-- IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are not using HushMail, this message could have been read easily by the many people who have access to your open personal email messages. Get your FREE, totally secure email address at http://www.hushmail.com.
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