Re: Anonymous Remailer threat: Scientologists may subpoena anonymousremailer records?

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

At 2:40 PM 4/11/96, Hal wrote:
>From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
>> At 7:37 PM 4/10/96, Jim Byrd wrote:
>> >to find the identity of -AB-.  This turned out to be an alumni account at
>> >Cal Tech.  The poster has never been heard from again.
>>
>> This was without a doubt just a user of one of Hal Finney's remailers he
>> runs out of an account at Caltech. (There's a tiny chance it was someone
>> else, but it fits the description of Hal's "alumni" remailer exactly, and
>> is almost certainly just that.)
>
>Actually, this is not true.  The poster, from rumors I have heard, was
>someone else with a Caltech alumni account (I don't know who).  I have
>never been contacted by any representatives of Scientology with respect
>to this case.  So it is apparently just a coincidence that this case
>involved the same system as my remailer.

Several other people have sent me e-mail saying the same thing. An odd
coincidence.... I'm glad I hedged a little bit.

I did not hedge in saying that Klemesrud represented Netcom, which turns
out to be wrong (as several people corrected me on). Klemesrud apparently
ran "support.com," which got its feed from Netcom. Sorry about any
confusion.

On the remailer subpoena thing, any Cypherpunks remailer operators who are
keeping logs might want to reconsider their strategies. And any such logs
should be purged before the subpoenas arrive.

(I understand, I think, the issues of abuse that have caused some operators
to keep logs. But since the rumors of subpoenas are in the air, now is a
good time to send the message that remailer operators _generally_ cannot
produce mappings between incoming and outgoing messages. In an ideal mix,
this is of course true. And by purging old files, it becomes de facto true
for even today's far-from-ideal mixes.)

--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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