Security, Technology and Privacy conference

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: .edu> anonymity requested
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 23:30:20 -0400
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Security, Technology and Privacy conference

Dave (I decided to drop the formal addressing, I hope it's ok with you :-)

I hope you're getting over the illness. Too bad you couldn't attend the DC
conference, it was extremely interesting. John Gage kicked off the
conference 
with a very interesting overview of current snooping technologies (with the
shocking example of http://www.earthviewer.com) and the right dose of
Microsoft bashing when the PC he was using for the demonstration crashed.

The first panel started with John Podesta's paper, arguing for more
transparency and public visibility in the government. Suzanne Spaulding
tried 
to scare us all off by talking about "terrorism" and the importance of
keeping information secret to make this country safer. The only good thing
about her presentation was that it was followed by Tom Blanton, who
completely devastated any arguments she might have had, with numerous
examples from contemporary America, where openness of information has proven
to be only beneficial, both to the government and the public. Blanton's
speech was moving, powerful, ending with a quote of an American politician
(sorry didn't note the name) at the end of a report on communism, that said
that "Of course, as we try to fight them, we will become more and more like
them."

Reed Hundt's talk after lunch was very interesting, fact-driven, and
provided 
a concice view into the immediate future of the telecommunications industry.

Day two, and some very interesting facts about public safety in "normal"
times 
came to light. Did you know that the government assumes that the average
American won't consume more than 1,5 whole mangos per year? This means that
the safety levels for chemicals are set in such a way that eating more than
that is considered "non-normal use" and therefore dangerous, since you
expose 
yourself to more chemicals than recommended. I believe this example was
given 
by Dr. Linda Greer, who painted a very gloomy image of the state of safety
control for the foods we daily consume, using numerous interesting examples.

During lunch, we had the dis-pleasure of getting a talk by Larry Thompson,
the 
Deputy Attorney General. It was both sad and scary. A couple of quotes that
almost gave me brain damage:
* "Our long studies have determined that the most successful deterrent of
terrorist activity is sustained police action"
* "I assure you that all of our actions (as pertaining to privacy,
surveillance etc) are completely legal."

He was constantly talking about the "terrorists", making sickening
statements 
about how "there are evil men out there, and they want to kill you and me",
and he concluded his little speech with a resounding "I think there is no
civil liberties issue".

They told us that the transcripts will be made available on the website
(http://www.securityandprivacyconference.com) in the next few days, but
nothing has showed up yet.

Cheers


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