🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Oct28.111437.1@zodiac.rutgers.edu> leichter@zodiac.rutgers.edu writes:
>[...] NOTHING here supports a right to
>communicate messages or store data in a way that cannot be reached by the
>government, given an appropriate warrant.  There is NO precedent for such a
>right.  The closest you can come are some very specific protections, such as
>the protection against self incrimination (a protection adopted, by the way,
>not out of any concern for privacy but to help prevent the use of torture or
>other means of pressuring confessions - for which it was eventually seen to
>be insufficient, leading to the exclusionary rule),


However, given simple secret key systems (forget public key), I can store
data in such a way that it can not be reached by the Government, encrypted
using only a memorized pass phrase.  The only way to get the pass phrase
out of me would be to force me to speak against my will.  That sounds like
it fits your description.


If I happened to share that pass phrase with a friend and happened to share
some of that encrypted data with that friend, he is free to keep it on his
system under the same conditions and protections.


Of course, if we had been engaged in something illegal, the prosecutor is
free to ask one of us what the other said -- and if we were to lie on the
stand, we'd be guilty of perjury.  *That* is the remedy provided to the
Government.

This does not give the Government the right to attempt to force a secret
out of my mind -- or out of my hard disk, if I have used it for overflow
storage for my mind, thanks to this technology called cryptography.

-- 
-- <<Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own, of course.>>
-- Carl Ellison						cme@sw.stratus.com
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