Re: Scientologists may subpoena anonymous remailer records

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 8:12 PM 4/10/96, Steve Reid wrote:
>> I thought that most or all of the cypherpunk anonymous remailers don't
>> keep records.  Not even on backup tapes.  The whole idea is that there
>> aren't logs.  But maybe they have found some remailers that are
>
>When a person recieves a message from someone using an anonymous
>remailer, the return address will usually work, depending on the
>remailer. The return address is for an address on the remailer, and
>sending to that address, the remailer will forward the message back to
>the person who owns that anonymous address.

Not the standard "Cypherpunks"-style remailers, except with some fairly
cumbersome tricks with "reply blocks" and/or message pools. I think you are
thinking of Julf's system, of which there is only one instance, his.

>I don't really know much about remailers, but I don't think there's much
>to know... If I'm mistaken about any of the above, I'm sure someone will
>correct me.

Glad to oblige. I note also that Jim Byrd and Jim Warren are unclear on
some details. (To Jim Byrd, that "alumni account at Cal Tech" that you
mentioned was one of the Cypherpunks remailers at Caltech that our own
pioneering Hal Finney runs.)

Cypherpunks remailers account for something like 29 out of 30 of all the
world's remailers, by site count, though not volume. Sophisticated users
know that the Cypherpunks model is the only robust one; Julf's approach has
an ecological niche, but is highly vulnerable to the very subpoena approach
used recently (not "several years ago" as Jim Warren says).

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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