Here's a note from ABC News' John Stossel: >Tonight at 10 PM, I hope to air a piece about the conflict between safety >and freedom. 71% of Americans..acccording to an ABC News/ Wash Post poll... >support giving up some personal liberties and privacy...if it makes it >easier for authorities to investigate terrorism. Senate Minority Leader >Richard Gephardt says, "Were going to have to change the balance between >freedom and security." > >But if we invite police to limit our freedom to speak and travel, aren't we >helping the terrorists win? > >I don't know if they'll air this tonight... ---- Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 17:24:58 -0400 From: James Plummer <jplummerat_private> Subject: NCP: Privacy Villain of the Week, Sept. 20 Privacy Villain of the Week: Would-be crypto-banners It has been written that with crisis comes the growth of Leviathan <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019505900X/>, and since the horrible terror attacks last week, many have been doing their best to keep that cycle going. Some have attempted to reinvigorate the idea that since terrorists may use secure encryption, Americans should be barred from doing so. Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) <http://cryptome.org/gregg091301.txt>, reopened the issue last week, calling for an end to private, secure communications. He was soon followed by some in cyberspace <http://www.politechbot.com/p-02536.html>, even as others were already resisting <http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46900,00.html>. What the Senator and other misguided souls refuse to recognize is that when a key to the back door of your communications is handed to someone (a government agency, a "trusted third party"), potentially anyone could exploit it. Permanently crippling secure encryption doesn't just leave your electronic love letters vulnerable, it makes important business-to-business, and yes, even law-enforcement communications to those ho would exploit. And it leaves the future of secure electronic cash -- perfectly anonymous and fungible, a boon to consumers -- virtually dead. And in the meantime, the bin Ladens of the world can hire their own programmer for secure encryption or use any number of potential creative ways <http://www.privacilla.org/default.htm?press10.htm&2> to activate their sleeper agents. Fortunately, reports indicate <http://www.wartimeliberty.com/article.pl?sid=01/09/20/198219> that the Administration recognizes all this and will not include a request for further cryptographic controls in their request for more "anti-terrorism" powers. But those who would push for such restrictions on a free people deserve to be . . . the Privacy Villain of the Week. The Privacy Villain of the Week and Privacy Hero of the Month are projects of the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group. For more information on the NCC Privacy Group, see www.nccprivacy.org or contact James Plummer at 202-467-5809 or jplummerat_private . To remove yourself from this list, just respond to this message with a removal request. To access this release directly, go to http://www.nccprivacy.org/handv/010920villain.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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