Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 14 Jan 2003

 GP> On (12 Jan 03) Steve Asher wrote to George Pope...
 SA>  GP> They've been real-time monitoring for AGES online! :P
 SA>
 SA> Yes, but they don't necessarily know for sure who they are
 SA> monitoring. If I type in "_icin" or "_astor _il _ree", it
 SA> will probably trigger _CHELON or _arnivore or something
 SA> before it gets to you, but the spooks reading the message
 SA> won't know for sure if I wrote it, or if it was a case of
 SA> false identity or identity theft. Only when an electronic
 SA> identity is "bound" to a physical identity will our masters
 SA> be happy in their ability to monitor our every move online.

 GP> You've lost me there, with your example. . . :P

With any luck, the example was lost on the spooks, too!

 SA> You will know when your ISP has provided the Government with
 SA> a list of users & their email addresses when the spam starts
 SA> arriving from various Govt departments, pollies & the like :)

 GP> Will they be that stupid as to telegraph their presence? :P

With the type of control they are building into the authentication
gateways, it won't matter if they telegraph their presence or not;
"resistance will be futile". E.g. the US General Services Administration
is building an "E-Authentication Gateway" at FirstGov, to be in use by
September this year. To conduct transactions with Govt departments via
the Gateway, persons will need a credential, provided by a third-party
provider (Microsoft "Passport" and the like, but in the form of permanent
passwords, temporary passwords, digital certificates & smartcards).

The "carrot" will be to "enable" taxpayers to lodge
their tax returns
for "free" over the Net, apply for passports, drivers licences and
the like online, etc.

The "stick" will be, that if you want to start a business, employ
workers, etc, then use of the Net for lodging official forms will
be mandatory - no "written" option, as paperwork is to be eliminated
by law (in the USA). Different countries have different names for
the authentication / accreditation systems; here it is "Gatekeeper",
which appropriately enough brings up visions of the "Praetorians" :)

No authentication = no access to on-line services.

Want a fishing permit? Want to register a gun, apply for unemployment
benefits, want to register to vote (or to vote) etc, then do it on-line, 
using a suitably authenticated credential.

Don't have the credential? Tough!

 GP> I am certain they ARE real-time monitoring(copying everything(esp.
 GP> deleted mail) for 'bots to search for keywords, but mostly just
 GP> recording it all for psych profiling of associations (if you are
 GP> identified as a rebel/etc., they can track all your
 GP> connections/correspondants, and even build a psych profile of you,
 GP> based on your net use patterns, then use that profile to search for
 GP> others who have a similar pattern, to pre-identify potential
 GP> 'problems' to the Authority! :P

Once everything is being done using "secure" credentials for all 
on-line activity, it will be a doddle to link credentials with
individuals, & to monitor activity as you describe.

Cheers, Steve..

---