[2560] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Position escrow
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Marcus J. Ranum)
Wed Apr 22 12:51:07 1998
Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 01:45:12 -0400
To: Phil Karn <karn@Qualcomm.com>, die@die.com
From: "Marcus J. Ranum" <mjr@nfr.net>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com, cryptography@c2.net, karn@Qualcomm.com
In-Reply-To: <199804212208.PAA22084@servo.qualcomm.com>
>I expect the main countermeasure to cellular position tracking will be
>the use of one-way pagers. Keep your cell phone turned off, and if you
>get a page when you're someplace you don't want them to know, wait
>until you leave before you return the page.
The best countermeasure is to reduce its usefulness to law enforcement
by reducing its success rate. If there's enough press coverage of the
fact that the capability exists, then clueful crooks will not use
cell phones. Just like with escrowed crypto, you'll only catch the
really DUMB terrorists. All technology aside, the best way to make
progress in this area would be if the next James Bond movie shows
the capability being used. Then even clueless crooks and drug dealers
will do the equivalent of "gosh, well, I saw it on TV!" and will
believe the threat. Hmmmm.... Makes me think that a great way to make
progress is for cypherpunks to start submitting scripts to hollywood
about presidents who get in massive trouble when their personal
communications are subpoenaed and crypto keys are de-escrowed to
prove that they had sex with office staff....
Nah, that's too stupid...
mjr.
--
Marcus J. Ranum, CEO, Network Flight Recorder, Inc.
work - http://www.nfr.net
home - http://www.clark.net/pub/mjr
