On PGP and Tom's file at the FBI...
When I survey the epic terrain of my web presence from a dispassionate stance what I see worries me. Not because I am particularly self-indulgent (which I can be, admittedly), not because I am particularly dull (although, god knows, I can be) but more because in all my ramblings, no matter their worth, I see discussions of gay marriage, political insurrection, anti-American rhetoric, a desire to blow things up, barely contained aggression, as well as a site which broadly declares Anarchy for the Masses and a discussion forum populated by (charming) anti-establishment types, advocating everything from mind-expanding drugs and casual sex, to wholesale anti-capitalist rants. Some of these individuals have even been confessing their sins in this public space. And some of these sins... Sheesh - it's enough to make any god fearing young woman all a-fluster.
And of course, there is my Noah Wyle site from the stone ages which I look at and get a bit embarrassed about. Which none of you people are supposed to know about, because it's really humiliating and I want you to take me . [It was very successful - even mentioned on Obsessive Fan Sites.]
So why does all this worry me? Because the combination of "left-wing", "politically engaged", "trashy celebrity hound" and "reader of anarchist literature" (reader of any literature for that matter) must make me worthy of a file at whatever vast intelligence gathering operation that America is throwing the largest amount of money at this month. [I wonder if they have referrer logs?]
Which brings us (finally) around to the story that prompted this tirade, nameably "Tom tries to get PGP to thumb a finger (?) at Echelon and Carnivore". As you probably know, it is illegal to export decent cryptography out of the US, which has resulted in a number of conflicts and potential conflicts, with products such as Apple's high-end G4s and the Neil Stephenson book Cryptonomicon, causing controversy when attempts have been made to send them out of the country. [Reasons for stopping export - foreign people might use these techniques and we all know what they are like, because we watched The Patriot the other day, didn't we kids!]
So I go to downloads.com and see what us lowly Europeans are allowed to get our greasy mitts upon. And clicking through to the download page I am asked a series of questions about how American I am. Figuring that this is a bit like that bit on the visa waiver forms you get in planes on the way to America which asks things something like "Are you a member of a terrorist organisation?" and "Are you planning to stick the President's severed head up your rectum?" - ie. something that no one really takes seriously - I declare my allegiance to the flag and press proceed.
Only to be confronted by a "you're not really in America are you?" kind of message. They've clearly run a check on my IP address and worked out what country I'm busy plotting in. Darn it. What now? What shall I do to find out more PGP information? I decide to wander over to cryptography.org and see what they have to say.But they ask the same questions! And again they check my IP address! And again I am refused entry! This time I'm shunted off to a list of more "appropriate" websites for the geographically abnormal (ie. non-American) and politically dubious (ie. non-American).
But this time I'm not taking it lying down. I figure that a site dedicated to crypto must be pretty impregnable. But then it occurs to me - maybe they don't want to be. Maybe they are fulfilling their minimum legal obligations, and are actually gagging to be broken into. This seems to be the case, because anyone world-wide can sneak into the site with just a little bit of legally dubious American impersonation and a quick trip over to anonymizer.com. So go on kids - find yourself a nice juicy secret and blab it all over the place. The information economy of the 21st century has arrived.
