Privacy tales

[Joel McNamara <joelm@eskimo.com>]

While most of my crypto-activism efforts have involved writing code like
Private Idaho, I've decided it's time to branch out a little, and play scribe.

I'm going to be actively compiling what I hope will be the definitive source
of worldwide case studies that demonstrate the benefits of Internet privacy
tools.  We've all heard the Burma and Eastern Europe stories from Phil, but
there have to be a whole lot more like them out there.  I'm looking for
stories with a human focus, that clearly show the importance of PGP,
anonymous remailers, and other tools to cultural, economic, and political
processes.

The goal is to have a body of evidence that can easily be tossed back at the
anti-crypto folks, when they trot out the Four Horsemen.  It would be great
to have hundreds of examples of crypto et. al. benefitting society, to the
few cases the government pulls out of its hat.

I plan on organizing and publishing selected accounts at my Web site as I
get them (specific details may be altered to protect identities).

I'm going to be cross-posting to a variety of newsgroups and lists to
publicize this.  I'd appreciate your help in spreading the word around.

If you have a story to tell, or know someone who does, I'd like to hear it.
It doesn't have to be an exciting "rebels in the jungle" account either.  In
many ways, the everyday slice of life stories may be more important.

See http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/privacy.html for details.  (And yes, I talk
about ways to maintain your privacy and anonymity if you want to contact me.)

Joel McNamara
joelm@eskimo.com