🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct26.180813.7002@netcom.com> tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) writes:
>Noted and influential influential crypto advisor Dorothy Denning has
>apparently floated the idea of _public key registration_ in a paper or
>talk at the 15th Computer Security Conference in Baltimore, held
>recently.

I saw that in RISKS and had trouble believing my eyes.


>-would establish the precedent that private communications are not
>legal, that copies of all private communications must be placed in
>escrow with the government

> [like]  banning the use of sealed
>envelopes for mail. In Phil Zimmerman's great words, it would be like
>requiring all mail to be sent on postcards.

Exactly.

During the Bork hearings, people kept asking how he stood on the
constitutional right to privacy.  I kept thinking about abortion and
contraception at the time -- privacy of consenting adults to have protected
sex and privacy of a woman and her doctor do decide what she does with her
own body.

It never occurred to me that plain vanilla privacy (my sealed envelopes to
my buddy in CA) might be threatened -- but it's probably the same thing.

As far as I could tell from the debate, it's *not clear* that there is a
right to privacy in this country.  We know there isn't one in the UK, or so
I'm told, and much of our law was inherited from England.

>My suspicion, which Prof. Denning will presumably comment on if she's
>reading this, is that the government folks have come to understand the
>profound implications of modern crypto and are looking for approaches
>to head off the coming sea changes. Granted, there are serious
>national security threats in using modern crypto methods, but there
>are in any of the new technologies, such as those listed above.
>Besides, does anyone think all keys will be registered? Hiding bits is
>a relatively easy thing to do.

And if you're caught with the machinery for hiding bits, that's evidence
that you're a crook, unless you can prove that you've registered with Big
Brother like a good boy or girl.

During the 1940's and 1950's, if you were caught with a hidden pad of
random numbers, the next step was the electric chair for you, the Communist
Spy.

>I think it was John Gilmore who said: "If encryption is outlawed, only
>outlaws will have encryption."



...but if we were to propose a constitutional amendment to establish the
right to privacy, it wouldn't have a prayer of passing.  Not only would
the anti-abortion lobby be against it, the law-and-order folks would
come down hard on it.

After all -- we're guaranteed the right to free, public speech.  We're
allowed to stand on soap boxes and preach all sorts of nonsense.  We're
allowed to have rallies.  But we're not allowed to gather in secret and
whisper among ourselves.  That's a suspected criminal conspiracy.  Only the
Executive Branch is allowed to do that (maybe Congress also).


What's the next step?

Anyone out there have the political savvy to address this?

:-(
-- 
-- <<Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own, of course.>>
-- Carl Ellison						cme@sw.stratus.com
-- Stratus Computer Inc.	M3-2-BKW		TEL: (508)460-2783
-- 55 Fairbanks Boulevard ; Marlborough MA 01752-1298	FAX: (508)624-7488