From: Mats Bergstrom <asgaard@sos.sll.se>
Date: Sun, 5 Nov 1995 20:47:28 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Credentials Without Identity
In-Reply-To: <acc1ae3828021004292e@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <Pine.HPP.3.91.951105123707.4854A-100000@cor.sos.sll.se>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


(PRIVATE mail, taken from the cp-list)

I choose to make these 'off-topic' comments off the record:
 
(By the way, please keep on 'crypto-moderating' the list
 your way; it makes much more sense - and is much more
 effective! - than Perry's.)
 
> Fortunately, I have heard there is a "right wing" backlash growing in some
> of the Scandinavian countries, especially Norway and Denmark. ("Right wing"
> is what the press calls it...I hope it's really "anti-left wing,"
> anti-cradle-to-grave-socialism.)

Well, also in Sweden, but this is merely against tax money transfered to
the 'less fortunate' (or 'lazy', as you sometimes call them) and is very
little, if at all, connected to anti-surveillance. Cross-referencing
various databases would actually be good for catching those who receive,
for example, unemploment money while actually working full time (especially
common amongst Mediterranian and Middle East 'political' refugees - many
of whom like to come here and work for a handful of years, sometimes adding
a decade to their actual age so they can go home to a warm climate at 55
to live as kings on their Swedish pensions). Isn't this a dilemma, also at
your home turf? FINCEN efficiency might save some of your tax dollars.

> To my surprise, several people on this list have expressed support for the
> need for so-called "data privacy laws." I look at it this way: if I put

I completely agree with you - actually, I think I took over some arguments
from you on this subject long ago - that these laws are bullshit.

> lists. Ironically, the Cypherpunks mailing list might be illegal in the
> U.K. unless the legal forms were properly filled out, the fees paid, the
> parties notified on a regular basis of information about them, etc. And our

This applies very much so in Sweden too. It *is* illegal to maintain any
database with 'information on persons' (like their email addresses) without
approval from the Data Inspection. But it's an open secret that this law
is broken on a massive front and no bureaucrat is really trying to uphold it.

> "Disneyland with a death penalty"

Yes, we live in interesting times.


Mats