From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 94 10:27:09 PDT
To: rarachel@prism.poly.edu
Subject: Autobombs - use and misuse
Message-ID: <gate.eBBykc1w165w@dxm.ernet.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


rarachel@prism.poly.edu (Arsen Ray Arachelian):
> I found this on comp-privacy.  Maybe we can use a scheme like this one to send
> anti-clipper information over the net...  Does toad.com have a usenet news
> feed?  If so, maybe we can have a program written that scans for keywords
> and mails the author of the message some info about cypherpunks and clipper
> and digital telespying 2.  
> 
> [.....]
>
> We could also have this program autobomb different articles based on different
> keywords.  It would be a good idea to also keep a list of names of those who

We'll soon start using agents, knowbots et al to look for info of our interest.
Autobombers can act as useful 'reverse agents,' that find info that we ought to
be interested in, determined from our postings. Very useful, if done in a way
that doesn't irritate. However, Paul's description (below) of rtfm keeping 
track of posters is scary. It's like subscription lists; if I let the Economist
give my name to whoever, I might get some interesting info; I might also be 
junk-bombed, and 'kept track of.'

Also:
> From: "Paul W. Robinson" <PAULW@TDR.COM>
> > [description of rtfm autobomber elided]
> >
> > This sort of practice could be prostituted into to all sorts of
> > interesting political correctness tactics by having automated programs
> > that watch for comments someone doesn't like and mailing the writer
> > complaints.

I can imagine a 'Detweiler bomb.' It scans for all occurrences of 'anonymity,'
'remailers,' 'Tim May,' 'reputations,' 'fraud,' and responds with long essays on
pseudospoofing and child pornography. Let's see: 'reputations' - 'conspiracies
by Them'; 'remailers' - 'that Roman torture thing'; 'Tim May' - 'is really Hal 
Finney (or was it Nick Szabo?)'; and so on... 
Using a different anon address (we don't mind using remailers to 'demonstrate 
their misuse') each time, with an expert system to recreate the original 
Detweiler writing style. (When not ranting against cypherpunks, LD seems to 
do quite a bit of useful work; the very detailed anon, privacy and whistle-
blowing faqs, or the Net resource list for writers.)

Thankfully, it's not *too* hard to build firewall agents to keep junk out.

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Rishab Aiyer Ghosh                            "What is civilisation
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