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INLS310 Anonymity & Privacy Update for 5 February 1997

INLS310 Anonymity & Privacy Update for 5 February 1997

CONTENTS:

* Anonymity/Privacy in the News
* Hands-on Help
* Tools
* Policy

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***
***ISSUE: A/P in the News
***

"Senator Conrad Burns announced at the 1997 RSA Data Security Conference
that he plans to reintroduce his PRO-CODE legislation. Rep. Goodlatte also
announced that he plans to introduce his companion legislation in the
House."
[From the Internet Privacy Coalition: http://www.privacy.org/ipc/ ]

"In a move to replace the Cold War-era regulations on encryption with
policies that make sense for the global Internet, Senators Conrad
Burns (R-MT), Bob Dole (R-KS), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Larry Pressler
(R-SD), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), and others introduced
legislation on May 2, 1996 to roll back the restrictions
prohibiting the export of strong encryption technology. 

"The bill, entitled the "Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the Digital Era
(Pro-CODE) Act of 1996", was designed to encourage the widespread
availability of strong, easy-to-use privacy and security
technologies for the Internet. It was similar to a bill introduced in
March by Senators Leahy and Burns, though the new bill did not contain
criminal provisions or provisions imposing liability for third
party key holders."
[From the Center for Democracy and Technology's PRO-CODE page:
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/pro_CODE.html ]


***
***ISSUE: Hands-on Help
***

To complement the discussion of the robot-excluding <META> tag in the 
3 January 1997 Update, here is a way to (possibly) exclude your news
postings from archives or search engines.

Deja News (http://www.dejanews.com/) claims that if you include a special
header in your posts ("x-no-archive: yes"), it will not make them
searchable to Deja News users. I am unaware of any other archiving
organization that supports this standard at this time, or even
whether Deja News fully complies with this. Even if they do, if
someone includes your post in a reply, it may still be indexed by
Deja News.  

Anyway, here's how to set up Pine so that every message you send has an
x-no-archive header:

-From within Pine, press "m" to get to the main screen.
-Press "s" for "setup", then "c" for "configuration".
-Use the space bar to page down to the "customized-hdrs" section.
-Press "a" to add a new header.
-Type "x-no-archive: yes".
-Press "e" to exit the configuration menu.

If you want the ability to selectively add "yes" to posts instead 
of defaulting to yes: 

-Add just "x-no-archive:" (no "yes") to customized-hdrs.
-Then move up to the "default-composer-hdrs" section and select "a".
-Enter "x-no-archive:" again.
-Press "e" to exit the configuration menu.

When you compose an email or news posting that you don't want to be
archived, just add "yes" after the "x-no-archive" header.

See http://www.dejanews.com/dndn.html#privacy for more information.


***
***ISSUE: Tools
***

Although PGP for PC users is DOS-based, there are a number of Windows(tm) 
front-ends that are freely available that make creating, encrypting, and
decrypting files easier. One is Private Idaho, which you can download
from:

	http://www.eskimo.com/~joelm/


***
***ISSUE: Policy
***

[While the following applies to "snail-mail", it's easy to see
implications for e-mail as well. -WJM]

The U.S. House of Representatives
H.R. 49, the Postal Privacy Act of 1997
 
GARY A. CONDIT (D-CA)
 
"Few people are aware that when they tell the Postal Service about an
address change, the Postal Service makes the information public through a
program called National Change of Address [NCOA]. NCOA has about two dozen
licensees--including many large direct mail companies--who receive all new
addresses and sell address correction services to mailers. If you give
your new address to the Postal Service, it will be distributed to
thousands of mailers.
 
"People always ask `How did they get my new address?' The answer may
be that it came from the Postal Service. People who want their mail
forwarded--and who doesn't--have no choice. File a change of address
notice and your name and new address will be sold."
[...]
"Individuals who file a change of address notice should be given a choice.
They should have the option of having their mail forwarded without having
their name and address sold to the world of direct mail advertisers and
others who traffic in personal information. This is what the Postal
Privacy Act will do. It will give people a choice. It will not end the
NCOA program.
 
"Who might be concerned about keeping a new address private? Anyone
who has fled an abusive spouse does not want the Postal Service giving out
a new address. An individual who files a change of address notice on
behalf of a deceased relative will not want the new address sold. Imagine
sorting through the affairs of a deceased family member only to receive a
mound of unwanted mail offering new products and services to that family
member from marketers who assume that the person has moved to a new home.
Jurors in highly visible trials, public figures, and others may have a
special need for privacy as might elderly people who may be more
vulnerable to unwanted solicitations.
 
"The bottom line is that everyone should have a choice about how his
or her name and address is made available to others. You don't have to
have a justification. It should be your decision. The Postal Service
should not make this decision for you."
 
[Read the full text of Condit's speech and the bill at:
 
        http://rs9.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r105:E07JA7-646:
        http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.49:  ]
 
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Send comments or suggestions to:  macmw@ils.unc.edu
Previous A/P Updates are archived at: http://ils.unc.edu/bitbucks/310