Elon University

Archives: Expert Predictions

Government Probes ‘Pretty Good Privacy’ Export

If simply placing something on an anonymous FTP server constitutes “export,” then life will become pretty complicated. As Americans, we’re used to wandering pretty freely inside our borders. Very few of us encounter our borders on a daily basis. If the Internet is deemed to be our border, then the U.S. becomes balkanized. Every inter-company communication is a cross-border transaction. Seems ludicrous, right? Then the only other conclusion I can see is that posting something on a server in the U.S. cannot, by itself, constitute an export act.

Just a Thought on a Cloudy Day for the Coming Year

It’s entirely possible that the spectre of the executive branch being able to listen to encrypted conversations and read encrypted mail of anyone in the Congress may well prove unsettling to some representatives or senators.

Equal Access – In the Battle of the Sexes, the Computer World Seems to be Yet Another Realm Dominated by Men. However, Women are Struggling to Gain Recognition for their Savvy, While Seeking Ways to Increase and Improve their Access to Technology and Directing its Future

If women want to ensure themselves a meaningful place in the future, they need to be among those determining how the technology will be used. They need to be among those deciding whether it will be the great leveler or simply serve to worsen social divisions … If we want technology to serve society rather than enslave it, we have to build systems accessible to all people – be they male or female, young, old, disabled, computer wizards or technophobes.

Electronic Privacy

The odds are even that any form of encryption save “Clipper”-type will be outlawed, and – like guns – will be only available to law breakers (in the main).

Electronic Privacy

Watergate would not have been difficult with such a technology. Eventually they will want e-mail records of who sends to whom and later what was sent.

Electronic Privacy

Clipper and the new digital telephony bills are a first step into what Orwell should have called 1994. It is the start of a slide. I consider the digital telephony bill the most dangerous … I see the slide ending with more and more government intervention in our private conversations. It will be the equivalent in cyberspace of having mikes in our living and bedrooms.

Now-Then

Technobabble will increasingly become part of the general public’s vocabulary as more and more people use computers at their jobs and buy them for their homes.