No Subject

[rishab@dxm.ernet.in]

> "In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich
> Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of
> phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps.
> When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it."

Reminds me of the hilarious "How to lie with statistics". What 1000 Americans?
The sort who read Time magazine? These are probably much more likely to be
against Clipper anyway. Any Joe 6-packs? Probably not.

"When informed" - what, and how was the information presented? Clipper can be
described as an NSA plot to listen in to everyone. Or a measure against 
drug dealers and mafia that happens to provide more privacy to everyone using
ordinary phones at the moment.

It's not a good idea to take this debate to the ordinary public. The Congress,
yes, Time readers, yes, but not Joe 6-pack, who quite happily gave up his gun is
not likely to be concerned about principles of privacy. Particularly as an open
debate could easily swing towards, and focus on, possible and current misuses 
of crypto technology, rather than any benefits. Joe is not as untrusting of 
governments as cpunks are, nor is he likely to appreciate digicash, anon 
posting or the Blacknet article.


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Rishab Aiyer Ghosh                            "What is civilisation
rishab@doe.ernet.in, rishab@dxm.ernet.in        but a ribonucleic
Voicemail +91 11 3760335; Vox/Fax/Data 6853410      hangover?"
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