"Filegate" may be good news for us

[Martin Minow]

>The current flap over the Clinton Administration's request for and receipt
>of FBI dossiers is being called "Filegate." The Administration has claimed
>the requests were innocent, and based on outmoded Secret Service lists. The
>Secret Service denies this, and says the list did not come from them. ...

>Why is this good news for us? (Besides the partisan issue of embarrassing
>and degrading the current government, which is always a good thing.)
>
>Because it underscores how difficult it is, even with ostensible
>safeguards, to control the distribution of dossiers, secret files, and
>surveillance reports.

Another reason is that it shows the problems with sensitive data even if
people have *legitimate* access to that data (i.e., assuming that there
was no mischief involved.

Ignoring all privacy issues, escrowed encryption keys will be extremely
valuable as they will allow insight into financial transactions. Thus,
they will be very attractive targets for economic espionage.

Martin Minow
minow at apple.com