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From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Subject: Re: UUCP traffic monitoring
Message-ID: <1982@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Sun, 12-Apr-87 19:54:52 EST
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.1982
Posted: Sun Apr 12 19:54:52 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Apr-87 17:42:48 EST
References: <870401-9823@nsavax.uucp> <2868@well.UUCP> <1580@husc6.UUCP> <918@laidbak.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 44

In article <1580@husc6.UUCP> greg@endor.UUCP (Greg) writes:
>I fail to see how reading the net may be construed as an invasion of privacy.
>If you feel that your postings are private, aren't you worried about the fact
>that thousands of people are reading them?

The problem is not that the NSA has machines on the net and reads the
netnews on them.  The problem is that NSA monitors long-distance phone
calls (this is not to exclude local calls!) over which netnews is
transmitted.  For example, hoptoad's calls to utzoo in Canada are certainly
monitored as they cross the border.

Of course, the monitoring doesn't shut itself off when it's determined
that email or voice or a terminal session is happening, rather than
"publicly available" netnews messages.  Indeed, NSA doesn't care to read
the netnews many times over -- they can read it all in Ft. Meade.
(All right guys -- whoever gave the NSA a news link, speak up!)
What they want to read is the private, personal mail.  I can see
a bunch of spies registering at US universities and getting student
accounts so they can report back overseas via Arpanet and Usenet.
Sure the NSA wouldn't think of that.  Sure the NSA wouldn't read your
and my traffic in the process of thinking of that.

By the way, AT&T is particularly culpable in this monitoring; when 
NSA comes by and asks for access, they get the open door from AT&T.
When there was a Bell System, local wiretaps got the same treatment.
One good reason to use the alternative phone companies is that some
of them, at least, require a court-issued warrant before they'll tap
a customer's lines or turn over subscriber records.  This slowed down
the catching of some kids who broke into Stanford's computers a few
years ago, but I can deal with kids breaking in a lot better than I
can deal with governments and phone companies conspiring to pry into
my life in secret.  The FBI was actually amazed that Sprint demanded
to see their warrant -- it took 'em a few days to get one, they were
so rattled.

My favorite moment in the history of the NSA is when it was shut down
early this century by a bureaucrat who said "Gentlemen don't read other
peoples' mail".  If you are upset about our dishonest President, why
be complacent about the dishonest characters like the non-gentle-men
who read our mail?
-- 
Copyright 1987 John Gilmore; you can redistribute only if your recipients can.
(This is an effort to bend Stargate to work with Usenet, not against it.)
{sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4,ucbvax}!hoptoad!gnu	       gnu@ingres.berkeley.edu