Gmail as Blacknet

[Major Variola (ret)]

At 05:26 AM 4/8/04 -0400, An Metet wrote:
>The privacy news has been full of fuss and bluster lately about
>Google's proposed Gmail service.

>Cypherpunks have two somewhat contradictory positions on the issue.
>First, as lovers of privacy, they will share the concerns in the letter

>and they would be reluctant to use Gmail as configured, at least with
>any pseudonym which hoped to retain privacy.

I disagree.  A punk would assume any server not under their control
archives everything, as do all routers between said punk and the server.



But second, as lovers of
>freedom, they would encourage Google and every other company to
experiment
>with new services and new technologies, allowing individuals to freely
>decide whether to use them or not.

We should use the service but only send encrypted mail :-)

>One of the oldest Cypherpunk philosophical thought experiments
>was BlackNet, a hypothetical offshore data haven whose main job,
>paradoxically, was to defeat privacy.  BlackNet would serve as a market

>and a storage facility for information that might be of value, one
example
>being credit rating information.  BlackNet demonstrated that even when
>third parties sought to prevent the flow of information, for example
>by mandating that credit report data be deleted after so many years,
>Cypherpunk technologies could keep the information available and alive.

The net never forgets.  BlackNet would support that behavior even in
the face of Men with Guns.

>Oddly, few Cypherpunks appeared to notice the inconsistency with a
>supposedly privacy-oriented group promoting a technology which would
>harm privacy.  The actual resolution is that Cypherpunks see privacy as

>a means to an end.  That end is freedom.  Privacy will lead to freedom
>by allowing people to communicate and contract without interference and

>meddling by interlopers.  BlackNet is an example of the kind of system
>which would appear if people were truly free.  That it harms privacy is

>merely an incidental side effect.

The LA riots were excellent reminders to the layfolk that guns are
important.  BlackNet's persistant-despite-your-guns behavior is
an excellent reminder to curb your info-promiscuity.

>>From the Cypherpunk perspective, the criticism of Gmail misses the
mark;
>rather, all web mail systems should be understood as fundamentally
>inconsistent with privacy.  If you want privacy, you have to do it
>yourself.  Writing an angry letter is at best going to make the privacy

>violations more covert.  It accomplishes nothing in the end.

Yep.  It could still be useful for things like distributed data storage,

dead-man switches, etc.  where content is encrypted.  Much like
any other free service, only nominally with more storage.


-------
I think people have not quite gotten their hands around the
speed at which information can be disseminated online.
-Monica Lewinsky, LATimes 9 may 01
http://www.latimes.com/business/columns/celebsetup/lat_monica010510.htm