From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 1997 09:15:06 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Why the government should protect our privacy
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970812174748.10940E-100000@well.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 20:15:33 -0400
From: Marc Rotenberg <rotenberg@epic.org>
To: declan@well.com, Michael Sims <jellicle@inch.com>
Cc: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: Re: trustee, shmustee

At 7:46 PM -0400 8/12/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Michael Sims wrote:
>>
>> What groups want for privacy of individuals:
>>
>> Government: Lots
>
>Michael, thank you for reminding us of the Clinton administration's
>valiant efforts to protect individual privacy.
>
>I agree that we should blissfully ignore that we're talking about the
>Clipper Chip president, the Digital Telephony guy, the same fellow who
>will veto any pro-privacy crypto bill.  We should try to forget last
>year's anti-terrorism bill, push for roving and multipoint wiretaps, and
>FBI desires to ban nonescrowed domestic crypto. No longer should I be
>concerned about the administration's quest for enormous voracious
>databanks that will be tied together -- airport security, travel records,
>national id cards. And of course ACLU legislative counsel Don Haines is a
>fool when he speaks of "the Clinton-Gore effort to hardwire Big Brother
>into the information age.
>
>Silly me.
>

Declan is absolutely right. Good thing there are no real
privacy officials in the federal government and no privacy
laws for the Internet to get in the way of these efforts.

Has anyone else noticed that the most sweeping proposals
for surveillance are coming from the administration that
has backed the fewest privacy laws of any administration
in 30 years?

Mere coincidence? I don't think so.

Marc.




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Electronic Privacy Information Center   *   +1 202 547 5482 (fax)
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