Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:23:53 -0400
From: Jeffrey Walton <noloader@...il.com>
To: Laurelai <laurelai@...echan.org>
Cc: full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk
Subject: Re: Snail mail vs. Email

On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 4:09 PM, Laurelai <laurelai@...echan.org> wrote:
> On 10/12/2011 1:26 PM, Daniel Sichel wrote:
>>> Well there is no push to make snail-mail encrypted and lets face it
>> most
>>> peoples mailboxes don't have any sort of locking mechanisms and is
>>> available to anyone with two hands and the malicious intent to steal
>>> someones mail  however the US Gov needs a warrant to intercept your
>>> physical mail, why does it being online somehow make it different?
>> What makes it different (and this is just me speaking, I don't really
>> know how others
>> feel or what current political thinking is on this)is that the internet
>> represents a new,
>> unregulated medium that can redefine some traditional standards and ways
>> of doing
>> Things in order to do them better.  For me, as a conservative, less
>> regulation an more personal responsibility is better.
>>
>> I will say something probably a bit unusual, especially these days,
>> reasonable men may differ on this view. A very credible argument for
>> regulation can be made, I just keep coming back the reality that
>> virtually every regulated medium of communication becomes a point of
>> control. To shamelessly steal and warp a phrase, "The power to regulate
>> is the power to destroy."
>>
>> I would prefer to be responsible for my own privacy and pit my skills
>> against the Feds at keeping it that way rather than "trust" them not to
>> abuse their access to my "protected" email.
>>
>> I work in the phone business and we have CALEA requirements which
>> supposedly allows law enforcement to carry out their sanctioned wire
>> taps anonymously to protect suspects' right to privacy. I may be wrong,
>> but it seems pretty abusable (if that's a word) to me.  I do NOT want
>> that on the Internet.
> Right and the way to stop that is to require a warrant and a paper
> trail, if someone serves a warrant at your home you get a copy of the
> warrant and you can ensure they only get exactly what the warrant states
> and *nothing more* these warantless email seizures have no such limits
> or accountability.they can literally come in and take copies of all your
> emails and you will never know about it, and they can do it for
> practically any reason, if you encrypt your email they will just demand
> they keys/passwords with a court order and you can't really fight it
> without spending time in jail, the US Gov simply doesn't have enough
> accountability or transparency, that's why we *need* more legal
> protections, if cops kick down your door without a warrant then anything
> they find rightfully cant be used as evidence, the same thing should
> apply to electronic communications.
In the US, we have the legal protections (on paper). The laws are not
enforced; the checks are balances are lacking; and there is no
accountatbility for public officials.

There's not a lot we can do when a public official disregards the law,
and subsequently goes unpunished. The ACLU and EFF do a great job, but
until public officials spend time imprisoned for their actions,
nothing will change.

Jeff

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