From: Brad Huntting <huntting@glarp.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Feb 94 09:06:06 PST
To: rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain)
Subject: Re: doj_escrow_intercept.procedures (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <199402052018.MAA14027@mail.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199402061700.AA04889@misc.glarp.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>> Makes *what* a whole lot easier, building the bomb or catching the
>> bombers?

> It makes it easier for any clandestine plan to be established and
> carried out.  This is the greatest fear they have.  Arbitrary
> networks of people with arbitrary purposes can be securely formed
> world wide within the limits of the trust inherent in the people.
> Can you spell r e v o l u t i o n?  It's not me that's paranoid,
> it's them.  :-)

While stopping terrorists may be easier in a country with pre-taped
communications, and organizing otherwise undetected insurrection
will be a little closer to possible, this is not the main purpose
of wiretaps today or in the future.

The real targets of wiretaps (now and in the future) are political
activists.  Anyone who poses a serious threat to large corporate
profits is a target for a wire tap.  This includes organizations
like Greanpeace, the communist party, CISPES, and even libertarians
who oppose superfluous military intervention.

Sure, blowing up the world trade center costs money, but cutting
arms sales to Indonesia just because of some little genocide on an
island with only a few hundred thousand inhabitants...  That cuts
into profits; especially if it catches on.

In the past, if Dow wants to put a tap on my friend's mom's phone
(a prominent anti-pesticide activist), they can just hire a private
investigator to climb the poll and sift through the conversations.
No, they never found out who was taping the line, for some reason
they didn't think to ask the guy who came around once a week to
change the tapes on top of the pole (go figure).

In the world where Clipper is predominant, the government will have
a monopoly on this sort of activity.  Two things are clear to
follow:  First, there will be fewer PIs able to do wiretaps.  People
chasing after abducted children or forgoten alimony cheques will
be out of luck.

Second, the government will be pressured into taking on the activities
that are now done by PIs (at a substantially greater cost of course).
This will force some relaxing of the rules governing obtaining
escrowed keys.

Since anyone purchasing the key escrow devices will have implicitly
agreed to (amongst other things) wave any expectation of privacy
associated with using the device, they probably wont have to much
legal ground to stand on when they discover the their phone
conversations have been sold to Exon.


brad