From: "George A. Gleason" <gg@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 93 01:28:17 PDT
To: remail@tamsun.tamu.edu
Subject: Re:  EC isn't great for privacy either...
Message-ID: <93Sep12.011829pdt.14002-1@well.sf.ca.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Right, "most people accept" the need for Big Brother to snoop..... 

In the UK, during the 1970s, the govt routinely tapped the phones of labor
union organisers and members of opposing political parties. This got out in
a series of articles in _New Statesman_.  Presumably it was easy for
dissident telephone engineers to detect evidence of the taps, because the
exchanges were electromechanical in those days & taps were hard-wired.
Nowadays, it's all System X or other digital, no evidence to detect, no
dissident engineers popping out of the woodwork....  

There are plenty of other examples of politically-motivated tapping;
opposition political parties ought to be making much hay over this right
now.

During Nazi occupation, Dutch telephone engineers were particularly adept at
creating non-tappable direct-dial long distance routes for special use by
the resistance.  After the war was over, they unveiled it for public use as
direct distance dialing.  Anyway, if any of these veterans are around, they
would probably have interesting things to say about the current issues...

-gg