Forwarded From: phreakmoi <hackereliteat_private> Is Strong Crypto a Human Right? by James Glave 2:05 p.m. 10.Dec.98.PST Privacy activists rallied around the United Nations' Human Rights Day Thursday with email and fax protests targeting the government of China for alleged human-rights abuses. A related campaign attacked a multinational agreement that will tighten controls on data-scrambling technologies. "We feel cryptography is one of the key elements required to protect human rights, specifically the 12th article of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that privacy is a basic human right," said Austin Hill, president of privacy software firm Zero Knowledge Systems. Hill said that new crypto controls -- part of an arms-control treaty signed by 33 countries and known as the Wassenaar Arrangement -- will harm the efforts of human-rights workers in China and elsewhere. "Wassenaar implements a system whereby people say human rights are less important than things like economic interests or the ability to conduct foreign intelligence," said Hill. The Wassenaar Arrangement, signed late last week, would limit the spread of strong crypto on the grounds that it might be used by terrorists to hide their communications. Hill will join privacy experts at a San Francisco symposium hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation called "Cyber Rights = Human Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is Not a Local Ordinance in Cyberspace." Hill will be joined by other electronic-privacy luminaries, including EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow and Esther Dyson, acting chairwoman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. A coalition of 13 free speech and scientific organizations launched an email campaign on behalf of two imprisoned Chinese scientists charged with using the Internet to promote democracy. Lin Hai is awaiting trial on charges of supplying the email addresses of 30,000 Chinese citizens to a dissident group in the United States. And Wang Youcai was jailed last month after attempting to form an opposition party and emailing supporting documents to dissidents. Had strong encryption been available, it's likely that neither man would be in jail today, suggested Dave Del Torto, founder of the Cryptorights Foundation. "Being able to communicate privately is an essential tool for anyone challenging the status quo, whether military or political," said Del Torto. "There are a lot of questions if cryptography in particular is a human right," he said. "That is one of the things that we are establishing, the ability to use technology to maintain your privacy." On Thursday, Hill's company launched FreeCrypto to protest the treaty. People can fill out a Web form that will fax or email a letter of protest to their government representatives. "The Internet and other new, democratic information technologies have made it easier than ever before for ordinary citizens to exercise their human rights," said EFF counsel Mike Godwin in a statement. "That's why it is so important for us all to renew our commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.... new technologies have given expanded meaning to those guarantees." -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]
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