🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan4.212439.4278@nntp.hut.fi> jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:
>
>I have communicated about this with CERT, and they don't seem to think
>my interpretation of the advisory is incorrect.  Thus it seems that
>CERT really supports measures like this, and I repeat and clarify my
>proposal that if it continues to do so, people who value privacy
>rights should not cooperate with CERT and we as net.citizens should
>see if something can be done to get some of the CERT's functions
>implemented in a way that respects freedom and people's rights, and
>also see if a message can be posted to comp.security.announce
>announcing the recommendation not to cooperate with CERT, the reason
>for it, and possible alternatives what to do instead of communicating
>with CERT wrt security holes, vulnerabilities etc.
>
>I don't know who does CERT's policy decisions and how one might
>influence them via other means (possibly organizations like the EFF
>and CPSR could work on this) but I do think the most simple thing to
>do about an organization doing something you seriously disapprove of
>is to stop all support and cooperation with it and suggest others do
>the same.
>
>//Jyrki

While Jyrki has made his posting to all sorts of newsgroups, I have
restricted my response to comp.security.misc.  

It's clear that Jyrki thinks that keystroke monitoring is an invasion
of privacy.  It is also clear, to me, that many Europeans tend to take
a stronger perspective on individual privacy than most Americans tend
to.  (Just look at number and content of western European privacy laws
and compare that to the US statues.)  Also, I refuse to get into a
discussion that one country is better than another for what ever
reason (privacy laws, education statistics, life expectancy,
environmental concerns, etc.)

What distresses me is that Jyrki seems to be condemming (e.g., "stop
all support and cooperation with it and suggest that others do the same") an
organization that has done tremendous service to the international
computing community.   My perception of the original notice was that it
was oriented towards US organizations (public, private, educational) and
that the legal basis of the notice would not necessarily be applicable to the
UK, France, Germany, Finland, Canada or any other nation.  This perception is
based on the understanding that the wording came from a US Governmental
organization.  

You may not agree with the intent of the original message.  However,
does this mean that you should kill the messenger?

Jeff Edelheit		email:  edelheit@mitre.org
The MITRE Corporation	voice:  (703) 883-7586
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