Big Brother Wants to Read your Email; A. Skoble

Big Brother Wants to Read Your E-mail by Aeon 1. Skoble S ome people concerned about privacy vio lations on the Internet object that many Web site operators collect and use informa tion about visitors for demographic research and, yes, advertising. Although "anonymizer" services are available, the simplest way to pre serve one's privacy from such operators is simply to refrain from visiting their sites. After all, no one forces you to buy books and CDs online. If you want anonymity, go to a store and pay cash. A more serious and unavoidable matter is the government's newest scheme for invading everyone's online privacy. In late July, the Clinton administration unveiled a new plan to use the FBI to monitor all Internet traffic, both on military and nonmilitary networks, under the guise of protecting the nation from terror ists who might use the Net for nefarious pur poses. According to a draft of the plan, a sophisticated monitoring system would be put in place to constantly track all computer activ ity, looking for "suspicious patterns." This would help keep tabs on the activities of the usual suspects: drug traffickers, child moles ters, and terrorists.

Of course, while that sounds like a reason ableprecaution,the potentialfor abuseis both grave and apparent. The government could monitor political dissidents as easily as it could monitor actual criminals. Any system that enables the authorities to track anyone Aeon Skoble is a visiting professor ofphilosophy at West Point. The views expressed here are his own. 33 enables them to track everyone. All electronic commerce and banking, all Web visits, and all e-mail communication would be potentially available for surveillance. This would include the retrieval of passwords for remote log-in. The director of the plan, Jeffrey Hunker of the National Security Council, claims he will make an effort to protect privacy rights. It is not unreasonable to wonder if this is actually a real priority for him. Two Threats There are two distinct threats to individual liberties here. First, with this powerful sur veillance tool, government's snooping power would grow astronomically. Unlike with wire taps, Big Brother wouldn't even need a court order to check up on anyone it wanted to investigate. Second, besides government abuse, we would have to worry about the tool being used by others who could illicitly get access to the information either through bribery or hacking.

Predictably, the government claims that it is not interested in eavesdropping, but only searching for patterns that might indicate ille gal activity.But whatdoes thatmean? You can get support for pretty much anything if you invoke the specter of child molesters or drug dealers or terrorists. But when the authorities have the power to track child porn, they have the power to track anything. It's a very short step to their reading our mail, investigating our medical records, and tracking commercial 34 THE FREEMAN/IDEAS ON LIBERTY. NOVEMBER 1999 and financial transactions. Of course, their answer to concerns of this sort is that if you are not doing anything illegal, you have noth ing to worry about. But this is wrongheaded for two reasons. First, they are the ones who decide what is illegal. Right now, dealing in heroin is illegal. It wasn't that long ago that beer was illegal also. It is well within the realm of the possible that they might decide that e-mail about liber tarianism is illegal. After all, in the govern ment's eyes, anyone writing angry messages about Waco might be the next Tim McVeigh.

Second, the very notion that only criminals should be worried about surveillance is contrary to the spirit of the Bill of Rights and the presumption of innocence. Why even bother with search warrants? If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't object to the police look ing around. That is the attitude of oppressive regimes everywhere, but should not be the guiding principle of law enforcement in a free society. We have the right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches. This surely includes our e-mail messages and Web activity. This new plan is a dangerous threat to individual liberty and should not be taken lightly, nor dismissed as hacker paranoia. This affects nearly all of us now. 0 Cliche5of Politic5 Mark Spangler, editor A re you tired of hearing people tell you that "We need government to -Ax this"? If so, we've got just what you need: Cliches of Politics, now in its -Afth printing. Edited by Mark Spangler, this book is a powerful antidote to statist claims that more government is better. Cliches is also a great resource for students addressing policy issues in research papers or in debate. Counter big-government bombast with Clichesl 324 pages, paperback ~ on eale for $6.95 Please send check or money order to: FEE, 30 South Broadway, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY 10533 Credit card orders: 1-800-452-3518 Just a Cigar by Jacob Sullum I n July the Federal Trade Commission rec ommended that Congress require warning labels on cigars. One of the warnings suggest ed by the FTC nicely illustrates the artful eva siveness of public health officials who seek to shape people's behavior rather than inform them: "Cigars are not a safe alternative to cigarettes."