From: Jim Hart <hart@chaos.bsu.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 94 00:29:43 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Privacy regulations
In-Reply-To: <199409072314.QAA17630@netcom7.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199409080729.CAA20260@chaos.bsu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> I won't go into the many issues here, as this is an ideological
> digression. Cypherpunks understand that laws won't protect their privacy.

> Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  

There is a central contradiction running through the dabase regulations
proposed by many so-called "privacy advocates".  To be enforceable
they require massive government snooping into database activities 
on our workstatins and PCs,  especially the activities of many 
small at-home businesses (such as mailing list entrepreneurs 
who often work out of the home).

Thus, the upshot of these so-called "privacy" regulations is to
destroy our last shreds of privacy against government, and
calm us into blindly letting even more of the details of our personal
lives into the mainframes of the major government agencies and
credit reporting agenices, who if they aren't explicitly excepted 
from the privacy laws (as is common) can simply evade them by using 
offshore havesn, mutual agreements with foreign investigators, police 
and intelligence agencies.

If cypherpunks contribute nothing else we can create a real
privacy advocacy group, advocating means of real self-empowerment,
from crypto to nom de guerre credit cards, instead of advocating
further invasions of our privacy as the so-called privacy advocates
are now doing!

The first political lobbying task of any real privacy advocacy group 
should be pushing for the reissue of Lotus Marketplace.   A
"privacy" group that works to keep the public misinformed about
the information we are giving out, at the same time increasing
the detail of government snooping of our private commerical data,
itself displays the kind of bovine bliss that is the most dangerous 
threat to our privacy, and ultimately our freedom.


Jim Hart
hart@chaos.bsu.edu