Epic's Freedom 2.0 conference May 20-22 was fantastic - resources were just posted at Freedom 2.0 - Resources
Here are the slides from my talk on Anonymity, Identity and the Role of Libraries & Other Info-Mediaries. I'll keep my slides posted until July 15th. I copresented with Ian Kerr who is leading a fascinating project On the Identity Trail: Understanding the Importance and Impact of Anonymity and Authentification in a Networked Society at the University of Ottawa.
Nimrod Kozlovski attended our talk, and made the observation that when libraries turn over Internet sign-ups to law enforcement, they are not turning over the contents of what the user read, but only the name and time. At first I argued that this content is easily linked to the user - in fact law enforcement already has it (e.g. a threatening email to eBay is traced to a library computer). He pointed out that libraries are no different in this case from other ISPs. In fact, if law enforcement officers get a warrant authorizing a full day's list of who was at the computer, the only person that they can link to content is the person they came for (i.e. the suspect). If the library is good about clearing out its cache - the names/times of other users cannot be traced to their search histories.
This is food for thought - and when I have time, I plan to write more fully exploring this.
anoymity is in important idea in todays world, don't fully understand the patriot act but it does seem to intrude a bit. Interesting stuff guys
Posted by: Puerto Vallarta Fishing Charter | August 06, 2004 at 11:23 PM
Never heard about it! Tell me more please
Posted by: Searchman | June 10, 2004 at 07:51 AM