From: Derek Atkins <warlord@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 94 23:28:23 PDT
To: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Subject: Re: Clipper Comparisons for non-geeks
In-Reply-To: <Pine.3.89.9404170121.A22760-0100000@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Message-ID: <199404170628.CAA15605@charon.MIT.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Well, one way I've described the clipper to a non-computer literate
person is to have them imagine a situation where the government
required that you gave them a copy of your housekey, and, if you
decided to get a safe-deposit-box, they would get a copy of that, too.
Basically, whatever you consider private or secure, in a physical
sense, would still be wide open to the government, no matter how much
you wanted to keep it private or secret.

Granted, this isn't a direct analogy, but it's close enough to try to
get someone to understand the implications of the Clipper chip.

-derek

         Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, G MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board (SIPB)
    Home page: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/warlord/home_page.html
       warlord@MIT.EDU    PP-ASEL     N1NWH    PGP key available