[107304] in Cypherpunks
Re: Suggestion for Public Echelon counter-measures
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Sat Jan 9 19:02:33 1999
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 00:28:45 +0100
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
>generate many messages, calls, etc. with "flagged" keywords; it must actually
>produce a very, very large volume of messages which it is not feasible to make
>computers distinguish from something which would really interest the
The whole idea that echelonites are harvesting e-mail for terrorists, bombs,
etc. is ridiculous. By this time even the dumbest among "terrorists" have
realised that YOU DO NOT USE E-MAIL OR FAX OR TELEPHONE to plan your operations.
Popularising the above idea just helps governments' cause - it supplies a good
excuse for snooping. It is fucking sad that this idea comes from cypherpunks.
Echelon exists because it makes behaviour of the masses predictable.
It provides instant feedback to the brainwashing machinery. Today you broadcast
some silly sod of the president recite some PR on a policy issue. The same night
you process all e-mails that mention this. Tomorrow you can predict how 99% of
the sheeple will "think" about it. After few years you know what public will
do and how much more it can take better than the public itself. That is the
purpose of Echelon and those others, unnamed yet, harvesting networks. The
government becomes superior opponent - they know what you are going to do (on
average) better than you do. They know your circle of friends and their friends.
I would not be surprised if they are selling digested opinions about products
to the industry as a side job.
The only way to fight this is wide spread use of encryption. Teaching someone to
use PGP is not that much harder than explaining the use of a new .sig.
