There's a pretty solid Special Report in the new issue of Macworld (July, 1993) on the ever-increasing threats to electronic privacy. Part One is called "Bosses with X-Ray Eyes: Your Employer may be Using Computers to Keep Tabs on You"; Part Two is "Privacy in Peril: How Computers are Making Private Life a Thing of the Past." Highlights: The reporters performed a little test to see how easy it is to get information on people electronically. They managed to get stacks of personal, legal, and financial data on, among others, Janet Reno, Clint Eastwood, Edwin Meese, George Lucas, Joe Montana, William Hearst, and the CEO of Bank of America with very little trouble. A poll on employers' invasions of workers' privacy found that 21.6% of companies search employees' files. There's also a sidebar on the insecurity of email. Favorite quote: "The U.S. is a laughingstock among privacy experts because we protect video- tape-rental records, but not medical records." In the same issue, columnist Stephen Levy is harshly critical of the Digital Telephony Bill. He goes off on a tangent about cryptography, and, while he doesn't mention Clipper, he speculates that if the bill is passed, the banning of strong crypto would very likely be next. He mentions PGP in passing. These pieces are all very strongly pro-privacy. It's nice to see this kind of coverage. I think articles like these are a tremendous help in furthering cypherpunk goals. --Dave.
Re: MacWorld Kudos to Mitch Ratcliffe for the MacWorld coverage. He's a strong advocate of privacy issues and makes sure his magazine covers them. Eric
Dave writes:
In the same issue, columnist Stephen Levy is harshly critical of the Digital Telephony Bill. He goes off on a tangent about cryptography, and, while he doesn't mention Clipper, he speculates that if the bill is passed, the banning of strong crypto would very likely be next.
I don't think that's a tangent, Dave. Thanks for the pointer. --Mike
participants (3)
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dmandl@lehman.com
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Eric Hughes
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Mike Godwin