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 <jplummer_at_consumeralert.org>
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 jplummer_at_consumeralert.org . 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
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Received on Sep 20 2001
Intro
