Subject: RE: If you think you've heard it all check this

From: "Robert G. Ferrell" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 14:48:11 -0500 (CDT)

>If there is any truth in this and it continues like this I wonder how many
>people will stay connected to the 'Net".

This is just sort of a corporate version of 'Echelon.'  There's nothing that I 
can see in this technology that any ordinary person couldn't do using Deja.com 
and other search engines.  A bit more organized, and conducted, apparently, on a 
grand scale, but nothing new.  

I think people need to realize that sending unencrypted email over the Internet 
is a little like tacking a message to a public bulletin board in a city park.  
You can fold it over and write "personal for Bill only" on it, but if someone 
decides they want to read it before Bill does, there's not much you can do about 
it (unless you stand there and guard it, but that's not really practical with 
SMTP traffic).   This may not be moral, ethical, or legal, but it's going to 
happen nonetheless.  And it won't just be "Big Brother," either.

Caveat Scriptor, if you know what I mean.

RGF  

Robert G. Ferrell, CISSP
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 Who goeth without humor goeth unarmed.
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