FC: Op-ed on encryption: Privacy is no longer an argument

[Jim Warren]

>http://www.wartimeliberty.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/21/0450203
>
>    Crypto Op-Ed: Privacy No Longer an Argument
>    posted by admin on Thursday September 20, @11:39PM
>
>    M. W. Guzy has a provocative and not entirely coherent essay
>    in Wednesday's St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Excerpt: "(Then-Senator
>    John) Ashcroft wrote that mandating deciphering tools was tantamount
>    to requiring 'individuals to surrender the keys to their house... to
>    the FBI just in case they are someday suspected of breaking the law.'
>    Somehow, that argument rings a little hollow when viewed through the
>    smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center...

SHEESH!  Are these anti-secure-crypto advocates REALLY that 
INCREDIBLY stupid and naive?!

The thing that continues to drive me bonkers about this kind of 
simplistic crap is that pretends aht Trade Center bombers, 
international terrorists, child molesters and murders will stop using 
globally-available strong crypto just because a law prohibits it, or 
give up ("escrow") their crypto keys just because a law requires it!

EVERY time we circulate yet-another idiot's message like this -- 
calling for limits on secure crypto or forced key escrow -- ALL of us 
NEED to attach a head-note pointing out that terrorists et al, are 
HARDLY likely to obey that law ... that instead, it will ONLY be 
law-abiding businesses and citizens who will LOOSE the ability to 
protect their sensitive corporate and personal communications (*and* 
files!) from competitors, foreign spies, and nosy voyeurs.

--jim
Jim Warren; jwarren at well.com, Senior Contributing Editor, MICROTIMES Magazine
345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062; voice/650-851-7075; fax/off due to spam-glut

[self-inflating puffery: InfoWorld founder; Dr.Dobb's Journal founding editor;
PBS-TV Computer Chronicles founding host; DataCast Magazine founder;
John Dvorak Lifetime Achievement Award; Autodesk Board of Directors (1990-95);
Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year);
Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif. James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award;
Playboy Foundation's Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award; blah blah blah]


**************************************************************************
Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues
Send a blank message to: freematt at coil.com with the words subscribe FA
on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week)
Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722  ICQ: 106212065   Archived at 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/
**************************************************************************