[911] in libertarians
PGP and mail
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kevin THEOBALD)
Sun Apr 23 12:32:43 1995
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 95 12:27:38 -0400
From: Kevin THEOBALD <theobald@bluebeard.cs.mcgill.ca>
To: libertarians@MIT.EDU
With all the talk about the Exon bill and the govt. exploiting
the OK bombing to crush PGP, I've gone and reread the PGP documents
by Zimmermann. He drew an analogy between systems like PGP and
envelopes: the govt. can crack PGP messages, just like it can
steam open envelopes, but both take effort. Zimmermann compared
unencrypted e-mail to sending snail-mail on postcards, since both
can be read by third parties without effort.
Suppose that everyone, as a ROUTINE, even for mailing in their phone
bills, were to write something across the flaps on their envelopes in
their own handwriting, the way the MIT Registrar's office seals
envelopes containing transcripts. The feds can still open your mail,
but it will take more effort to conceal the evidence (by carefully
aligning the flaps), or maybe they won't bother and will assume the
recipient won't notice.
Kevin
