From: vvallopp@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Vinod Valloppillil)
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 94 19:31:35 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Feds & Ecash!  Yikes!
Message-ID: <199410020231.WAA24339@blue.seas.upenn.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Anyone have any enlightening info about this?????

<forwards deleted>

 Path: netnews.upenn.edu!news.amherst.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!world!mkj
 From: mkj@world.std.com
 
 Everybody knows that Al Gore is hot on this "National Information
 Infrastructure" thing.  What many people may not fully appreciate --
 or at least, what I'm just discovering myself -- is the sheer enormity
 of the disaster going on as we speak, under the banner of the
 "Information Infrastructure Task Force" (IITF).  If you haven't
 already done so, I highly recommend an enlightening browse on the
 iitf.doc.gov site (ftp & gopher at standard ports, http at port 70).
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^
 (NOTE: Individuals in fragile health should always consult a physician
 before exposing themselves to detailed information about their
 government's activities.  Have you ever felt like an ant in the path
 of a steamroller?  YOU WILL ...)
 
 Although I've barely scratched the surface, I've already run across a
 number of items which might be of interest to folks here.  The DOE,
 for instance, reports that they are working on
 
         "Developing electronic cash systems that would maintain
         the privacy of individuals from merchants and banks, but
         would allow law enforcement to trace the flow of the
         electronic cash, given proper court orders."
 
 Other spectacularly dubious achievements include the report of the
 Privacy Working Group, which never once acknowledges any individual
 right to privacy, and in fact devotes most of their report to various
 ways to increase the "willingness" of the public to divulge personal
 data; and the draft report of the Intellectual Property Working Group,
 which with a straight face characterizes most current Internet
 activity as illegal, and then goes on to outlaw the rest of it, while
 blandly noting that the public will require "education" in these
 matters.  Also, of course, there are any number of hints of NII
 projects involving various intelligence agencies.

 Enjoy.
 
                                         ---  mkj
 
 
 


------------------------------+----------------------------------------------
Vinod Valloppillil            | Even if you're one in a million,
Telecom/MIS/Strategic MGMT    | there's still a thousand more of you  
Engineering/Wharton           | in China.....
vvallopp@eniac.seas.upenn.edu |  
------------------------------+----------------------------------------------
    "It is often easier for our children to obtain a gun than it is to find
a good school."   -- Joycelyn Elders
 
    "Maybe that's because guns are sold at a profit, while schools are
provided by the government."  -- David Boaz