Phil Zimmerman, the creator of PGP, will speak on Wednesday in Dennis Allison’s class at Stanford about changes in the government’s attitude towards encryption. From the lecture announcement:
Phil will talk about how the debate on the use of crypto has
shifted since the 1990s, when it was a a clash between civil
liberties and law enforcement. Today it is an essential part of
protecting our economies from bad guys. Soon, new seismic
realignment of government attitudes about encryption may appear.
Historically, law enforcement has benefited from a strong
asymmetry in the feasibility of government or criminals
wiretapping old fashioned telephone calls. As we migrate to VoIP,
that asymmetry collapses. Without VoIP encryption, organized
crime will be able to wiretap prosecutors and judges, leading law
enforcement to see VoIP encryption in a different light. In the
1990s, the crypto debate was about avoiding omniscience in
governments, but today the encrypted VoIP debate may be about
avoiding omniscience in criminals.
This is a great illustration of Larry Lessig’s code is law principle, and a good reminder that changes in the underlying “code” that controls our interactions ultimately can lead to changes in law. (Therefore: don’t prematurely code into law things that are in a process of technological change.)
The lecture will be held at 4:15PM, Wednesday, Mar 7, 2007 in the HP Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B01 at Stanford.