From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 95 18:03:49 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Whitehouse "dissident" web site monitoring?
Message-ID: <ac7b776f120210047e03@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



I strongly agree with the views of  Phill Hallam-Baker and Brian Davis, and
perhaps others who make the same points, that access by the White House to
the various Web sites is NO BIG DEAL.

I go further: I have no concerns about the NSA reading _this_ list! After
all, it's a public list, so all are free to read it. Also, it may be very
useful for the Feds to be seeing what we are arguing.

We don't believe in "security through obscurity," do we? The notion that we
are "safe" if the White House, or (horrors!) Janet Reno herself, are not
reading our list or the Web sites on various issues, is the same kind of
security the ostrich thinks he has with his head in the sand and his butt
in the air.

If you want to be unheard by the Feds, and the White House, and the FBI,
and GCHQ, and Mossad, etc., then don't post publically. If you want your
own access to Web sites kept private, push for the development of Web
proxies ("Web remailers").

And so forth. Security is in our own hands, as it should be (and as
"complex mathematics" has made it).

(In the U.S. and most Western countries--actually, an increasing number of
countries, worldwide--it is not easy to prosecute and convict a citizen for
mere views expressed, or for reading preferences, etc.. Although I am
thought of as a "crypto anarchist," and basically am such a thing, the fact
is that there aren't a lot of trials for thoughtcrime in this country. I
have some doubts about the circumstances surrounding Danny Casolaro's
death, though, so I don't say all is rosy and perfect. I just say that
paranoia that the White House or the FBI is reading public items is
unwarranted.)

--Tim May

---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."