Reason's C. Young: Encryption is "scary," put up with surveillance
Declan McCullagh
declan at well.com
Wed Sep 26 22:38:06 PDT 2001
In case any of y'all actually care, my response (and others) to Young's
essay is here:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02575.html
-Declan
On Wed, Sep 26, 2001 at 06:18:15PM -0400, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> http://www.reason.com/cy/cy092401.html
>
> September 24, 2001
> Civil liberties may take a hit
> By Cathy Young
>
> [...]
>
> The movements of foreign visitors will be scrutinized more closely.
> Perhaps most alarming to many civil libertarians, it's likely that the
> government will expand its ability to monitor electronic mail, which
> has been a controversial issue for some time.
>
> Do I like the idea of the government intercepting e-mail? No. But, as
> long as there's judicial oversight and due process, that's no
> different from its longstanding power to intercept regular mail.
>
> Do I like the idea of people being able to encrypt electronic
> communications so that they are beyond surveillance? Frankly, I found
> it scary even before Sept. 11 - precisely because of the threat of
> terrorism.
>
> It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; perhaps there are
> no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks.
>
> Even in the Declaration of Independence, the right to liberty is
> preceded by the right to life.
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