Folks:
I'm attaching a draft copy of an article which will shortly be appearing in
EYE Magazine (one of Toronto's local free newspapers.)
I'd appreciate any comments or feedback asap so that they can be
incorporated in the version that goes to press.
regards
robert.
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Date: Monday, January 15, 2001 5:59 AM -0800
From: "S. M." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Scott McFarlane: My Completed Article
Dear Mr. Guerra:
I have completed my upcoming article for Eye. I thought that you might like
to take a look at it.
Thank You.
Scott McFarlane
SPY VS. I
Although I never really bought the grim look at the future found in
Orwell?s 1984 and in countless other works of fiction, recent developments
have caused me to re-evaluate my position.
Last year in the UK, a bill that gave the government the power to access
e-mail, require British ISP?s to basically monitor all traffic through their
computers and demand encryption keys to all
electronic data communications became law, despite the concerns of private
citizens, businesses and civil libertarians. Also in the headlines in 2000
was ECHELON (a spy network consisting of
agents from Canada, the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand) whose
original mandate of monitoring the Eastern Bloc has changed in later years
to track terrorism and, according to
critics, invading personal privacy to help governments in commercial
activity.
Are these only isolated occurrences or should the general public be
concerned at the prospect of government and commercial snoops rummaging
through our electronic information?
?I think we really don?t know?, says Robert Guerra, the Toronto-based
Director of Operations for the CryptoRights Foundation
(www.cryptorights.org) a not-for-profit human rights security
organisation that was established to promote the use of cryptographic tools
to protect Human Rights Workers and privacy on the Internet.
?Anyone in the world can read your e-mail?, Guerra says, ?but if
you use a tool that can encrypt it, then only the person you want to read it
will?. There are options available for downloading or purchase that will
encrypt personal e-mail and to prevent someone from watching what websites
you frequently visit available in such software as PGP (Pretty Good
Privacy--available at (www.pgpi.org) or Montreal firm ZeroKnowledge?s
Freedom 2.0 (www.freedom.net).
With all the talk of diminishing privacy, is a public outcry against
cyber-snooping and a corresponding towards encryption programs and secure
computer networks likely? Probably not, since, as Guerra points out:
?People don?t realise that it?s a problem until it?s their privacy that?s
invaded?. A wired world may provide us the conveniences of such things as
readily-available data and the facilitation of financial transactions, but
they also leave us with an
electronic trail that leads directly back to us.
?We are allowing people to snoop on us?, says Guerra. At no time in
history has the world been so open and never have we been so open to the
world. Guerra also believes that a lot of the privacy rights that have taken
centuries and a lot of political battles to develop could be in jeopardy.
?The biggest thing we have to fear is ignorance?, he says. ?Anything that we
do online is like a diary we are writing and it can used by spies at any
time against us and that?s what?s scary?.
Since we it is highly unlikely that we will disconnect ourselves from the
world in order to prevent being watched, what can be done? Last year in
Canada, Bill C6 was passed which promotes electronic commerce by protecting
how personal information is collected and used. Ontario also has a very
strong proponent of personal privacy in Dr. Anne Cavoukian, the province?s
Information and Privacy Commissioner (www.ipc.on.ca). But many other parts
of the
world aren?t so fortunate and the electronic monitoring proceeds apace.
What will wake the public up? Perhaps, as Guerra puts it, a ?privacy
Chernobyl?, where a lot of people are affected by a security breach on a
mass scale. Although Bill C6 provides government-trusting Canadians some
peace of mind, we should remain vigilant.
Whatever happens to personal privacy in the coming years depends mostly
on howseriously society values its privacy and what it is prepared to do
to maintain it. ?It just dependson how much importance we give it?, says
Guerra. ?It just depends on what everybody does?.
RELATED INFO
1) The Toronto CypherPunks are an organisation that brings together people
in the city to discuss issues of privacy, cryptography and security?. For
more information on their monthly meetings,
check their website (www.toronto.cypherpunks.ca) for details.
2) The Shmoo Group?s SecurityGeeks web page (http://securitygeeks.shmoo.com)
is an interesting and informative site that deals with computer security
issues as does the excellent
Cryptome site (http://cryptome.org), which examines government surveillance
systems.
3) You can listen to Real Audio speeches dealing with privacy from last
year?s 10th Annual Computers, freedom and Privacy Conference that was held
in Toronto (www.cfp2000.org). You can also look ahead to this year?s
conference (www.cfp2001.org/home.html).
4) The Privacy International website has the Big Brother Awards, which are
awarded to the government and private sector organisations ?which have the
most to threaten personal privacy in their countries?.
(www.privacyinternational.org/bigbrother).
5) Check out Electronic Frontier Canada?s Gold Key Campaign to promote
privacy and security of electronic communication at
www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/golden-key.html.
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