[3171] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: An Essay on Freedom, Anonymity & Financial
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John R Levine)
Sun Aug 9 23:16:03 1998
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 1998 22:21:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: John R Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <199808092211.SAA11762@jekyll.piermont.com>
It seems to me we're just rehashing the standard argument between
a privacy advocate and someone who hasn't thought through the issues very
well. It goes something like this:
Someone: [ some surveillance technology ] will let the cops catch lots of
bad guys who are hard to catch now.
Advocate: But I don't want them spying on me and taking away my privacy.
Someone: There's no reason you should object unless you have something
evil to hide.
Advocate: Well, OK, how would you feel about a security camera in your
bedroom?
People in our society engage in lots of legitimate activities which are
private. Crypto is just like any other privacy technology, it helps maintain
legitimate privacy which is unrelated to legality or illegality.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner
Finger for PGP key, f'print = 3A 5B D0 3F D9 A0 6A A4 2D AC 1E 9E A6 36 A3 47
