~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT Reply to: ssandfort@attmail.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Punksters, For those of you who live in darkness (i.e., don't read THE ECONOMIST), here is a letter to the editor from David Chaum, in the most recent issue: SIR--Your leader, "No hiding place", and article, "Big brother is clocking you" (August 7th), are to be commended for focusing attention on the exploding threat to privacy being created by piece-meal adoption of intrusive systems, such as automated road tolling. Proposing systems designed around pre-paid smart cards as the solution is, however, somewhat misleading. In French pay phones, Danish vending machines, and in fact all large-scale uses today, such cards must identify themselves during each transaction. Even though your name is not on the card, it represents an erosion of privacy over the coins it replaces. If you are once identified by even a single transaction, such as when you reload the card from your bank account, all your transaction details are linked to your identity. A rare few systems, however, truly do protect privacy. They need not cost more, weaken security, or be harder to use. The technology is described in my article in /Scientific American/, "Achieving Electronic Privacy" (August 1992). A smart card version has already been demonstrated for road tolls by the Dutch government. And CAFE, a project sponsored by the EC, is designing an electronic wallet that literally will, as you recommend, "leave as much control as possible in the hands of individuals." /Amsterdam/ DAVID CHAUM Of course, the next letter to the editor calls for the adoption of systems to track every vehicle at all times. The genius who wrote the letter, thinks it would be a good way to prevent nuclear, biological or chemical terrorism. Geeeeez. S a n d y

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