The Privacy/Untraceability Sweet Spot

David Honig honig at sprynet.com
Tue Aug 28 07:35:39 PDT 2001


At 01:02 AM 8/28/01 -0500, Aimee Farr wrote:
>That is not my attitude at all, Reese. I obviously like Tim's Blacknet.
>However, I don't like it being characterized as a subversive tool, and damn
>sure not in terms that might indicate a criminal conspiracy for shopping out
>secrets to Libya.

The point is, if its not *good enough* for taboo 
activity, its not good enough for everyday uses.

And of course, tools are neutral; the knife OJ dressed his ex
with was not an 'evil' piece of metal.   Neither are guns.

As metalsmiths, we might regret how we make it easier to slice
members of our species, much as as technologists we might regret
that nets+crypto makes some copyright unenforcable, or how networked
boxes have an unintended side-effect of lessening privacy.

As the first metalsmiths might have observed, no matter the pros
and cons of this development, its out there, its possible, 
folks will be competing to refine it, so get used to it.

You can always write a tome afterwards like Albert Hoffman's "My Problem
Child" if you need to explain later.

That being said, if you object to dark 'marketing' on a personal
level, well, sure, but that's merely your personal taste.





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