From: Eric Fogleman <Eric.Fogleman@analog.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 05:57:24 PST
To: norm@xanadu.com
Subject: Re: Communications Policy
Message-ID: <9301211355.AA27670@ack.adstest.analog.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Responding to the following from Norm Hardy:

> I hear concern over privacy and also over erasure of White House tapes.
> I pose the following question: Should an institution have the right
> to private communication? Is the White House an institution?
> Notice that I say "should" not "does".
> Which sort of world would you rather live in. I have mixed feelings.
> If we say that all computer communications should be accessible to courts
> then the effect will be to displace some communications from computers.

Institutions -- individuals, groups of individuals, companies -- should
have the right to private communication.  (In terms of e-mail, this
means that one knows where all copies of their letters are and has the
power to erase them?)

The right of government employees to private communication is limited
by one important factor:  many of these individuals are empowered to
use force against citizens, and they responsibile for justifying the
use of this force.  (Examples of what I mean by force:  arresting and
putting people in jail, searching, seizing, impounding, levying taxes,
wiretapping, shooting alleged criminals).  Anyone given this kind of
power has a heavy burden of proof and had better be able to prove
beyond a shadow of doubt that their actions are justified.

The burden should not be on individuals to constantly be open to
scrutiny to demonstrate their innocence, but on those with the
power to suspend individual rights.


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Eric Fogleman                              eric.fogleman@analog.com
Analog Devices Semiconductor               Voice: (617) 937-2275
804 Woburn Street                          Fax: (617) 937-2024
Wilmington, MA  01887-3462                 
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