From: "William H. Geiger III" <whgiii@amaranth.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 19:43:47 -0800 (PST)
To: Clay Olbon II <olbon@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Newt's phone calls
In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.16.19970113191647.098f90d2@popd.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <199701140349.VAA01437@mailhub.amaranth.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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In <1.5.4.16.19970113191647.098f90d2@popd.ix.netcom.com>, on 01/13/97 at 08:12 PM,
   Clay Olbon II <olbon@ix.netcom.com> said:


>I just caught the news reports of Newt Gingrich's cell phone calls being
>taped by "a little old retired couple" with a scanner.  These were then
>given to a congressman, who gave them to a newspaper.

>The take on this that we won't hear is: "This is outrageous!  Why don't
>cell-phones offer encryption to ensure our privacy?"

>Unfortunately, I think crypto is still so far beneath the public
>consciousness that the obvious solution to these sorts of problems is
>ignored in favor of the "there oughta be a law" non-solution.  (Of course,
>in this case there is a law!) What I really hope this incident spawns is a
>market ...

There is a very basic reason that cell phones are not encrypted; the government does not
want them encrypted. Many an arrest has been made from infromation gathered from
cell/wireless phone conversations. AFAIK the police do not even need a search warent to do
this.

With the cell phone industry regulated by the FCC I doubt that you will ever
see cell phone's with built in encryption.

As far as the general public is concerned the majority are sheep. They are
quite content to know that it is illegal for their neighbor to listen in and
ofcource Big Brother would only listen to those nasty drug dealers & mobsters.

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