RE: Screening Outgoing Mail for Content

["Stout, Bill" <StoutB () pios com>]

This is a rough topic.  If you run a company, of course you want to make
sure no bad things get in, and no 'good stuff' gets out.  Just make sure
that's well understood in the employment contract.  The vehicle used to
get stuff in and out is irrelevant.  Data generated within a corporation
belongs to the company, and the company could legally search things like
backpacks, e-mail, disks, and bodies, to some varied extreme.
Unfortunately each step creates a precedent.

You and your car can be searched on the street for illegal items or
alcohol.  At airports your luggage and body are searched for illegal
items.  Why not your computer?  Apparently British customs has begun
searching laptop disks for illegal porno, ignoring the concept of
ownership and 'privacy'.  I understand 1984 was written about the
behavior of the British government anyway, a government past Americans
have proudly revolted against, and a system present Americans stupidly
embrace duplicate.  

While many in the U.S. claim their homes are 'privacy territory', it
actually belongs to the county, since though you may live in the
boonies, you need a permit to move dirt or change your own kitchen sink
(Santa Clara co., CA).  If a judge can issue a search warrant for your
property or computer, you must not own it either, someone else owns it,
it simply requires higher approval to access it.  It's only a matter of
time before we're offered digital certificates, than assigned them, and
required to use certificates for 'security'.  If our bodies can be
searched without permission, we must not own that either, therefore
certificate micro-strips may as well be embedded within our palms too,
right?  Solves that lost wallet problem too, since credit cards, SSNs,
and IDs are merely weak spoofable certificates.

The underlying topic is rough, since if a user refuses a search in any
case, he must be hiding something, and by law is assumed guilty of
committing some crime (drunk driving precident: Refusing alcohol search
of body fluid finds one guilty of being intoxicated).  Policing 'your'
data though, is equivalent to policing your thoughts, since you commit
your thoughts to e-mail and files.  

We create the beast we rant against.

Bill Stout