Date: Mon, 06 Jun 94 20:38:35 EST
Errors-To: Comp-privacy Error Handler <owner-comp-privacy@uwm.edu>
From: Computer Privacy Digest Moderator <comp-privacy@uwm.edu>
To: Comp-privacy@uwm.edu
Subject: Computer Privacy Digest V4#075
Computer Privacy Digest Mon, 06 Jun 94 Volume 4 : Issue: 075
Today's Topics: Moderator: Leonard P. Levine
Re: Where Can I Find PGP?
Re: Where Can I Find PGP?
Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Re: SSN & Auto Registration
Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
Crackdown on Italian BBSes Continues
California Cordless Phone Penal Code
Please help - Survey for a Research Paper
The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the effect
of technology on privacy. The digest is moderated and gatewayed into
the USENET newsgroup comp.society.privacy (Moderated). Submissions
should be sent to comp-privacy@uwm.edu and administrative requests
to comp-privacy-request@uwm.edu. Back issues are available via
anonymous ftp on ftp.cs.uwm.edu [129.89.9.18]. Login as "ftp"
with password "yourid@yoursite". The archives are in the directory
"pub/comp-privacy". Archives are also held at ftp.pica.army.mil
[129.139.160.133].
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: matt@ra.oc.com (Matthew Lyle)
Date: 29 May 1994 21:47:36 GMT
Subject: Re: Where Can I Find PGP?
Organization: OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, TX
mb2@kaiwan.com (Mark Brown) writes: I was under the impression that
PGP was availible via ftp. After doing an archie search I tried
four different sites and the only thing I could find were doc and
text files relating to PGP but I can't seem to find the program.
Does anybody know where I can find it ?
In the USA, you can get PGP from net-dist.mit.edu. You will first need
to telnet to that host and log in with the userid "getpgp" and verify
that you will not export it illegally from the USA.
--
Matthew Lyle matt@oc.com
OpenConnect System, Dallas, Texas (214) 888-0474
------------------------------
From: markh@vanbc.wimsey.com (Mark C. Henderson)
Date: 29 May 1994 15:37:38 -0700
Subject: Re: Where Can I Find PGP?
Organization: Wimsey Information Services
Mark Brown <mb2@kaiwan.com> wrote: I was under the impression that
PGP was availible via ftp. After doing an archie search I tried
four different sites and the only thing I could find were doc and
text files relating to PGP but I can't seem to find the program.
Does anybody know where I can find it ?
for version 2.6
net-dist.mit.edu:/pub/PGP
ftp.wimsey.bc.ca:/pub/crypto/software/dist/US_or_Canada_only_XXXXXXXX/PGP/2.6
to access PGP from wimsey
anon ftp to ftp.wimsey.bc.ca
cd /pub/crypto/software
read the file README
If you agree to the conditions then use the information in the README
file to get to the PGP directory. (Basically you will get the current
value of XXXXXXXX. This mechanism is an attempt to prevent illegal
export from ftp.wimsey.bc.ca. Similar controls are placed upon PGP at
other sites in North America including the MIT site).
U.S. and Canadian persons only please.
--
Mark Henderson markh@wimsey.bc.ca - RIPEM MD5: F1F5F0C3984CBEAF3889ADAFA2437433
ViaCrypt PGP key fingerprint: 21 F6 AF 2B 6A 8A 0B E1 A1 2A 2A 06 4A D5 92 46
low security key fingerprint: EC E7 C3 A9 2C 30 25 C6 F9 E1 25 F3 F5 AF 92 E3
cryptography archive maintainer -- anon ftp to ftp.wimsey.bc.ca:/pub/crypto
------------------------------
From: oppedahl@panix.com (Carl Oppedahl)
Date: 29 May 1994 17:57:25 -0400
Subject: Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
jmm@elegant.com (John Macdonald) writes: It might even be simpler
than that - there have been a couple of companies that I worked for
that asked (not required) that you just tell them the license plate
of your car when you started working with them. (It has been a
frequent item on visitor registration forms when I'm at customer
sites.) In my first job at Control Data, there were a number of
times when I got a phone call from the front desk to tell me that
I'd left my headlights on - so, against the disadvantages of loss
of privacy you have to trade the advantages and decide which is
likely to be more significant.
Hmmm... a strategy that works well if no one ever buys a second car.
I suppose another possibility is if the car owner has ham plates, in
which case the employer simply looks it up in a callbook.
--
Carl Oppedahl AA2KW
Oppedahl & Larson (patent lawyers)
Yorktown Heights, NY
voice 212-777-1330
------------------------------
From: dhughes@robins.af.mil (Dolly Hughes)
Date: 1 Jun 1994 20:01:29 GMT
Subject: Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Organization: Robins AFB, GA
Bob Swarner (swarnerr@mexico.bettis.gov) wrote: I recently got a
parking "violation" from by employer for not parking exactly where
they wanted me to. They put a slip on the windshield, which I
figured they kept a record of to look for repeat offenders. Well,
it turns out they also, via my license plate number, got my name
and sent a copy to my supervisor. While this is not a big deal (my
bosses comment was "Who cares?"), was this a proper use of the
license plate?
I was under the impression that you couldn't just go to DMV and ask to
find a name and address. It's illegal in several states and it began
with California after the dead of actress Rebecca Schaffer. Her killer
used DMV to locate her home and shot her at her front door.
Dolly Dagger**
*I feel sorry For Madonna * She doesn't know who she is * She tries to
steal other people's identities * She will steal anything she can get
her grubby hands on * She should have stolen some acting tips *
------------------------------
From: swd_lrr@afds.cca.rockwell.com
Date: 2 Jun 94 16:47:38 GMT
Subject: Re: Employee looking up your license plate number
Organization: Rockwell International
dwn@dwn.ccd.bnl.gov (Dave Niebuhr) writes: If there wasn't a
sticker then I say the employer queried a DMV databse but I rather
doubt it.
I have been told on several separate occasions by different gate guards
that my employer does query the DMV about license plates. They do this
to identify those who park contrary to company policy and to notify
those who have left their headlights on.
Only the privileged employees have any kind of identifying sticker; any
identification of ordinary employees has to be through the DMV.
Lance ==)--------
------------------------------
From: swd_lrr@afds.cca.rockwell.com
Date: 2 Jun 94 16:35:29 GMT
Subject: Re: SSN & Auto Registration
Organization: Rockwell International
peterson@CS.ColoState.EDU (james peterson) writes: 4: The
consequences of failure to provide an SSN. With regard to this
last bit, I have recently seen two federal Privacy Act Statements
on two unrelated federal forms (one from a grant agency, the other
a federal worker form). Both contained words to the effect that
"disclosure of the social security number is optional, but it may
be impossible to process the form without it."
In other words, it's "optional" in the sense that eating is
"optional."
Anyone want to comment on this way of dodging the Privacy Act?
Throughout my entire tour of active duty (Air Force '81-'86) as well
the subsequent period inactive duty, every piece of official paper
requested my SSAN (which was also my service number). As far as I can
recall (I began being leery of SSAN usage coincident with the active
duty), they each said that supplying the SSAN was optional. However,
these forms also said that not supplying it might make it impossible
for them to give me what was rightfully mine, such as the pay and
benefits they were under contract to provide.
I have often wondered what they would have done if, from the very
beginning, I had written "DECLINED" on the SSAN line. Having done so
once, I was kinda committed.
Lance ==)--------
------------------------------
From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" <levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 1994 10:31:03 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
from: Bernardo Parrella <berny@well.sf.ca.us.>
To: All
Subject: Fidonet Crackdown in Italy - Follow-up
Date: May 23, 1994
"The crackdown needed to be done, software piracy has become a National
sport in Italy. Unfortunately, the operation rapidly became too wide
for our forces: right now, here in Pesaro we are only three
Prosecutors, quite busy with criminal trials, in court all day long. We
will try to do our best with the less possible damage for the entire
community."
Here are the explanatory words of Gaetano Savoldelli Pedrocchi, the
Pesaro Prosecutor who is managing the investigations that last week led
to a nationwide crackdown on Fidonet Italia BBSes
During the operation - confidentially known as "Hardware 1" - more than
60 (some sources go up to 130) Bulletin Board Systems have been visited
and searched by police and custom officials.
In the central and northern part of the country, several Fidonet nodes
were closed and dozens of operators were charged of "conspiracy with
unknown for distribution of illegally copied software and appropriation
of secret passwords."
Some figures say the seizures included more than 120 computers, 300
streamer-cassettes and CD-ROMs, 60,000 floppy disks, an imprecise
number of modems and other electronic devices.
In some cases, police officials sealed off rooms and garages where the
BBSes were operated or closed all the hardware they found in a closet.
Several Fidonet operators (generally students, professionals,
small-company owners) lost their personal data because every magnetic
support was "suspected to carry pirated software".
Aimed to crack a distribution ring of illegal software run by two
people using the publicly available Fidonet nodelist, investigators
searched and seized every single site of the list - even those that had
never had any contact with the two suspected.
Also, many operators not inquired by police were forced to immediately
shut down their systems, searching for possible illegal software
covertly uploaded on their BBSes.
As a consequence of such indiscriminate operations, the real, very few
pirate boards had the chance to quickly hide their businesses - sources
say.
"I do not believe to this scenario," said the Pesaro Prosecutor in an
interview by SottoVoce Magazine. "We acted after precise information
about the activities of a specific data-bank: if some operators have
nothing to do with the charges, we'll verify it as soon as possible."
Questioned about further investigations agai nst BBSes users, the
Prosecutor said: "We'll see later....at the present, users can sleep
peacefully: otherwise, I cannot imagine how many people should be
investigated. I do not want to criminalize the entire population. Even
if the inquiry has become so vast, this is not a subject of vital
importance for our country. It is mostly a fiscal and bureaucratic
issue, a matter of small-scale but spread illegality."
However, rumors say other inquires are currently underway in other
cities, and even the Criminalpol is working on similar issues.
Assisting the investigated people, some lawyers already asked for the
immediate return of the confiscated materials, while others suggested
to wait for better times. In any case, it will probably take months
(years?) before receiving official answers regarding the seizures.
Struggling to re-open in some way their systems, Fidonet operators are
also working to get the attention of mainstream media on the issue -
with little success, so far. After an article published by La
Repubblica, two local newspapers, Il Mattino and Il Giornale di
Brescia, run brief reports on May 15, both centered on "a wide software
piracy ring cracked by police officials".
But the real activity is happening inside and around electronic
communities.
MC-Link, Galactica and especially Agora' Telematica (the biggest
Italian systems) are doing a great job, offering space for news,
opinions and comments - also acting as conne ction links between
the decimated net of BBSes and worried individuals scattered along the
country.
Here is just one example: "....police officials seized everything,
including three PCs (one broken), a couple of modem (just fixed for
some friends), floppies, phone cables, phone-books. Now Dark Moon is
down, hoping to have at least one line available in a few days, maybe
at 2400. I fear that more raids will soon follow elsewhere. So, please,
stay alert..."
A catching dynamism flourishes from the BBSes linked to Cybernet.
Although some of them are currently not operating, several special
issues of the Corriere Telematico were released over the net and their
printed voice, Decoder Magazine, will soon distribute news,
testimonies, comments on "Operation Hardware 1".
PeaceLink has set up a defense committee-news center in Taranto and its
spokesperson, Alessandro Marescotti, will sign an article for the next
issue of the weekly magazine Avvenimenti.
The news are arousing a vivid debate on Usenet (soc.culture.italian,
comp.org.eff.talk) and on The WELL (eff #584), and are also widespread
by Communet News, Computer Underground Digest, and Alice (Italy-based
mailing list on civic networking).
Promptly alerted, the International online community gave good response
- quickly redistributing the news over the Net (from the APC Networks
to Global Network Navigator) and sending supportive messages.
Here is an email from Michael Baker, Chairman of Electronic Frontiers
Australia: "To that end I am writing to offer assistance to anyone in
Italy who wants to set up such an organisation. Recently I (along with
others) have set up Electronic Frontiers Australia, and I am now its
Chairman. Other national EF groups have been, or are being, set up in
several other countries (Canada, Ireland, Norway, UK and Japan)....if
there is anything we can do to help, please ask."
Shifting toward politics, on May 19, the first working day o f th e new
Italian Cabinet, six Members of the Reformers group presented a written
question to the Ministers of Justice and Interior.
After a short introduction about telecom systems, the document gives an
account of the facts and asks three final questions to the Government:
"- if it will intend to open an investigation to verify if the raids
ordered by the Pesaro Prosecutor's office were prej udicial to the
constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression; - if it is not the
case to set up a better and greater team of computer experts in order
to avoid further random seizures of electronic devices that lead to
shut down the BBSes; - if it is not the occasion to confirm that
current legislation does not charge system operators with objective
responsibility for users' activities on telecom systems."
Although the Fidonet sysop community (about 300 people) is still quite
uncertain regarding its future, many of them feel the urgent need to
overcome a sort of cultural and social isolation that clearly surrounds
the telecom scene in Italy.
At the moment the main issue is how to raise public interest and
political pressure to obtain clear laws in support of civil rights in
the electronic medium.
Several online laboratories, such as the Community Networking
conference on Agora' Telematica as well as the BBSes linked to
Cybernet, are developing a vast array of ideas and proposals.
"We underestimate our strength: if we could just be able to set up an
Italian Association of Telecom Users we could put pressure on political
and legislative bodies." "Overwhelm newspapers, radio and tv stations
with faxes, letters, phone calls!" "We must attract common people,
through hundreds of tables and events in the streets more than online,
even if we do not have a Kapor to support us." "There should be
press-conferences in several cities, with the presence of investigated
people along with famous persons, politicians." "What about a 24-hours
silence from any system in the country with simultaneous events in each
city and village where a BBS operates?"
The situation is rather fluid and in e-motion. Stay connect!
- Bernardo Parrella
<b.parrella@agora.stm.it>
<berny@well.sf.ca.us>
< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
electronic distribution of this posting is greatly encouraged,
preserving its original version, including the header and this notice
< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
------------------------------
From: "Prof. L. P. Levine" <levine@blatz.cs.uwm.edu>
Date: 6 Jun 1994 10:57:04 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Crackdown on Italian BBSes Continues
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
from: Bernardo Parrella <berny@well.sf.ca.us.>
To: All
Subject: Crackdown on Italian BBSes Continues
Date: June 4, 1994
Twenty-four days after the first major crackdown on Fidonet Italia
BBSes, on Friday June 3, the Taranto Finance Police visited Taras
Communications BBS, the main National Peacelink node and data-bank.
Acting after a warrant issued by the Prosecutor of the same city,
Giovanni Pugliese and his wife were charged for the possession of
"illegally copied software and electronic equipment suitable to
falsification." After searching their apartment for more than 5 hours
(from 5 pm to 10.30 pm), Finance officials sealed off the PC on which
the BBS run and seized 174 floppy disks - leaving behind the monitor
and the only available modem. Because the Taranto node hosts most of
the network archives and all the email traffic, at the moment the
entire national Peacelink net is down. Giovanni Pugliese is currently
working to start again his system as soon as possible - probably in the
next 48 hours.
"Taras Communications BBS has never had anything to do with software
piracy and is well know for its activities related to humanitarian,
peace, social and community issues," Giovanni Pugliese said. "Peacelink
and its sister Fidonet Italia network had always pursued a very
restrictive policy against any illegally copied software on their
systems. Because Taras Communications BBS is the main National node of
Peacelink network, its forced closure, hopefully very short, will
result in a great damage for those hundreds of people - including
journalists, activists, volunteers - that were widely relying upon its
everyday services."
With more than 30 nodes throughout the country, several Fidonet
gateways, and a project currently underway to connect directly to
Comlink and the other APC Networks, Peacelink is completely dedicated
to peace, human rights and ecology issues. Founded in1992 as a
specialized conference of Fidonet Italia network, Peacelink became
quickly independent and well known even outside Italy. Recently the
network hosted a national conference on peace-related matters, becoming
also the only communication link for people in the former-Yugoslavia
and the outside world.
The first phase of the crackdown (May 11-13) targeted Fidonet Italia
network in several cities in the northern and cental regions of the
country. While a still inaccurate number of BBSes (probably from 30 to
60) were searched and dozens were closed down, on May 25 an official
press-release of the Finance Police in Torino claimed a seizure "for a
value of more than 4 billion of Italian lire (about US $2,5 million),
including 17 personal computers; 13,690 floppy disks of illegally
copied software," dozens of modems and electronic devices. Fourteen
people were charged with "conspiracy with unknown for the crime of
software piracy" - but no arrests were made.
The new raid hit the online community at the exact moment when sysops,
users, media and citizens were waiting for a relaxing and clarifier
signal from investigators, including the first decisions about the
seized hardware scheduled in these days.
Right now, activists are coordinating a series of quick answers,
including the probable foundation of a National association dedicated
to the protection of civil rights for Electronic Citizens.
- Bernardo Parrella
<berny@well.sf.ca.us>
<b.parrella@agora.stm.it>
< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
electronic distribution of this posting is greatly encouraged,
preserving its original version, including the header and this notice
< - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >
------------------------------
From: glr@ripco.com (Glen Roberts)
Date: 1 Jun 1994 16:05:18 GMT
Subject: California Cordless Phone Penal Code
Organization: RCI, Chicago, IL
California Penal Code:
Section 623.6 Eavesdropping on confidential communication transmitted
between cordless phones; Punishment.
(a) Every person who, maliciously and without the consent of all
parties to the communication, intercepts, receives or assists in
intercepting or receiving a communication transmitted between cordless
telephones as defined in subdivision (c), between any cordless
telephone and a landline telephone, or between a cordless telephone and
a cellular telephone shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two
thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), by imprisonment in the county
jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison, or by both that
fine and imprisonment. If the person has been convicted previously of a
violation of Section 631, 632, 632.5, 632.6 or 636. the person shall
be punished by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or
by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the
state prison, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(b) This section shall not apply in any of the following instances:
(1) to any public utility engaged in the business of providing
communications services and facilities, or to the officers, employees,
or agents thereof, where the acts otherwise prohibited are for the
purpose of construction, maintenance, conduct, or operation of the
services and facilities of the public utility.
(2) To the use of any instrument, equipment, facility, or service
furnished and used pursuant to the tariffs of the public utility.
(3) To any telephonic communication system used for communication
exclusively within a state, county, city and county, or city
correctional facility.
(c) As used in this section and in Section 635, ``cordless telephone''
means a two-way low power communication system consisting of two parts
-- a ``base'' unit which connected to the public switched telephone
network and a handset or ``remote'' unit -- which are connected by a
radio link and authorized by the Federal Communication Commission to
operate in the frequency bandwidths reserved for cordless telephones.
--
Glen L. Roberts, Publisher, Directory of Elect Surv Equip Suppliers
Host Full Disclosure Live (WWCR 5,810 khz - Sundays 7pm central)
Box 734, Antioch, Illinois 60002 Fax: (708) 838-0316
Surveillance Hotline: (708) 356-9646 Bust the Bureaucrats: (708) 356-6726
------------------------------
From: ericj@eskimo.com (Eric T. Jorgensen)
Date: 6 Jun 1994 13:06:42 -0700
Subject: Please help - Survey for a Research Paper
Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever
I am preparing a research paper on privacy issues relating to computers
and networking, focusing on the Internet. The following information
will be collated for use in the paper. Please place a mark of some
kind ('X', '*', etc.) in the space provided for Yes/No questions and
take as many lines as you wish for the others.
Please (r)eply or mail the answers to me at ericj@eskimo.com.
=====
1. Do you currently use encryption software that allows only the
intended readers to read the file?
( ) Yes ( ) No
Why, or why not?
2. Do you use or produce encryption technology or software in a
work environment?
( ) Yes ( ) No
3. Do you currently use an anonymous email/news server?
( ) Yes ( ) No
Why, or why not?
4. What are the three largest reasons to use either encryption or
anonymity, in your view?
5. What are the three largest threats to encryption or anonymity
use, in your view?
--
ericj@eskimo.com Eric T. Jorgensen IRC: RoadDog
------------------------------
End of Computer Privacy Digest V4 #075
******************************
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