could somebody on cypherpunks please explain to me what the whole
point behind companies like Privada and ZKS really is?
As far as I understand, these companies use fancy, proprietary "encryption"
to make sure nobody out there in the big, bad Internet world can
find out my (a) geographic location, (b) IP address or (c) operating system.
Since when does scrambling my IP address have anything to do w/
my privacy? IP addresses are almost never personally identifying,
since (a) most corporate users are coming from behind a firewall,
(b) most consumers have a dynamic DHCP address anyway and (c) in
a worst case scenario, I can always switch my IP address..
I've worked in customer analytics at various, significant e-commerce
Web operations, and the worst thing companies do w/ this info is
use it to debug their site operations across the zillion different
Browser/OS variants out there in the market place. No human has
ever received an ounce of spam b/c some corporate bad-guy was able
to figure out thier browser/OS combination. At best, it seems, Privada/ZKS
are guarenteeing us a future of buggier Web sites..
Furthermore, each company seems to require me to fill out a mongo
form of personal info like name, address, email, credit card, etc,
etc, etc before I can even fire up their software!!!
THIS is the information about me that REALLY IS personally identifying,
it's the info that EVERY e-commerce Web operation is DYING to get,
and here they are asking me for it before I can even use there software,
and then I have to PAY to use their software, even though my personal
information is worth a gold mine to Internet marketers (who can
pay upwards of $300 to acquire a new customer), and as far as I'm
concerned ZKS and Privada and whoever else should be PAYING ME to
see my personal info, for exactly that reason -
both companies seem to make the point that you don't have to trust
them as a third party, and yet the first thing they ask for is my credit
card number -
an economy based on "nyms" is a pipe dream. No human has ever purchased
a car, or purchased a home, or taken out a loan, or started a business,
or gotten a job by using an anonymous "nym". Any significant economic
transaction, in both the real world and the virtual, requires accountability,
and accountability is only engendered through identity, not anonymity.
(the anarchists, I'm sure, will cringe, but it IS a sobering fact
of this reality that we all live in)
it seems a more appropriate use of cryptography to enhance privacy
would be to make sure that any transaction I partake in is REALLY
done by me.. identity theft is the worst privacy violation in this world,
not IP logging...
privacy IS NOT synonymous w/ anonymity (again, the anarchists will
cringe, but it's another sobering fact of reality), but rather with
controlling the personal information that the world DOES come to know about
you..
Can ZKS/Privada disclose to me the personally identifying information
Web sites (and other corporations, organizations, etc) have collected
about me? Can I find out for what purposes this information is being
used? Can I make sure it is only being used for the reason I disclosed,
and not for other reasons I didn't approve? Can I make sure this
information is accurate and consistent? Can I delete my personal
info from a corporate database if I find they have been misuing it??
Can ZKS/Privada stop the phone calls at 7am from my credit card
company, who just "wants to make sure the personal info they have
about me is correct, oh, and my the way, can we interest you in
a balance transfer from your Discover card while we have you on the line?"?
I'm a newbie to the whole field of encryption, so please enlighten
me if I'm missing something about "zerk-knowledge" proofs...
IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you are not using HushMail, this message could have been read
easily by the many people who have access to your open personal email messages.
Get your FREE, totally secure email address at http://www.hushmail.com.
