'Net privacy is international concern Usenix security panel worried about lack of government regulations By Kristi Essick, IDG

August  1996

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"People are rightfully getting very uneasy about the lack of privacy on the Internet," said Mary Connors, a representative for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, who noted that a lack of government regulations to monitor what is done with personal data on the Internet is a widespread worry for Americans and Europeans.

The Europe Commission has laws that safeguard the individual when it comes to personal data, but in the U.S., such information is readily bought and sold to marketing firms and private individuals, said Connors. "Europeans want the U.S. to get with the program" and are often unsure about what will happen with their personal data if a U.S. address-sales company gets a hold of it, she said.

"I was astonished to learn that privacy is so threatened in the U.S. and that your personal data is unprotected," said Magda de Jong, managing consultant in application services for Hewlett-Packard Netherlands, who was at the symposium to learn more about ways the U.S. and Europe can collaborate on encryption policies.

"Trading secure information between countries is hindered by the U.S.'s export policies on encryption," said de Jong. "The U.S. and Europe should be working toward collaboration and cooperation. Otherwise, big disasters will happen, such as fraud and people losing lots of money."

`Stupid U.S. Government'
An Australian attendee agreed that U.S. encryption policies are a hindrance to global cooperation, especially when it comes to electronic commerce. Most Australian individuals don't feel comfortable doing online business with U.S. companies because Australians can't use the highly secure version of a U.S. encryption product to transmit their credit card information, said David Purdue, secretary of AUUG Inc., and an employee of SunSoft.

In a system where both parties need to use a local copy of the same encryption product to send and receive secure data, overseas users get the short end of the stick because they are limited to a 40-bit version, Purdue said.

"The real problem is the stupidity of the U.S. government," said Purdue, who added that he believes the export ban will be lifted in the next year.

"We can no longer be certain that any information is private on the Internet," said Peter Neumann, a cryptography researcher at Stanford Research Institute, during a panel discussion on Internet Privacy Issues.

"The information society is putting too much information out there that we can't protect," said Neumann, who added that the U.S. has to come up with stricter laws to prosecute hackers, but must slacken the laws on encryption in order to protect individuals.
--Kristi Essick, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

Resources

• Usenix
  http://www.usenix.org/

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