Re: Poor Man's Anonymous Digital Mail Drop

[Peter Breton <pbreton@cs.umb.edu>]

On Wed, 24 Feb 1993, Kelly Goen wrote:

> > I think the idea is just that it is an e-mail account.  I don't think you have
> > any disk quota or such and probably can't even telnet or ftp from it.  The
> > idea for this is privacy.  The best way to keep someone from reading your
> > files is to make it so that they can't get their hands on 'em.
> > 
> > George
> > 
> 
>  it really doesnt work out... MANY ways are inherent in the scheme
> to eventually match a face with an account. If you always pay
> in cash, if you always where a mask(WAIT MASK??? well I think you get the IDEA)
> credit cards will; eventually be traced and bank accounts discovered
> unless one started taking their precautions before the information age...
> now the only absolute privacy/anonymity will be the ones that can
> insure it with technology
>    cheers
>     kelly
> -- 

 I'm not saying that the phony email-account scheme has a lot of merit,
but it could surely be implemented: simply pay by money order from your
local Christys each month, and, of course, order the initial service from
a mail drop or something. I actually think the most reliable privacy methods
are low-tech (e.g., pay for things w/ cash instead of checks or credit cards)
but they involve sacrificing some of the convenience we may be accustomed
to. Personally, I get my access free, and I wouldn't want to pony up the
bucks to pay for a duplicate account...

		Peter