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To: PJ Strifas who wrote (27858)	8/24/1999 11:14:00 AM
From: Paul Fiondella	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42771

What makes the United States different! Our founding fathers were committed to a system of government in which checks and balances on the power of the state would prevent our freedoms from being taken away from us by the abuses of power which they knew would inevitably take place. They were committed to a republican form of government in which equality before the law supplanted the English system of privilege. They were quite experienced with what it was like to live under a state, ruled by a monarch, where privilege and worthiness counted for more than equality before the law. Ours was never intended to be a state in which you could come before a Court and recite your pedigree to win your case. Unfortunately the power of the state has increased not diminished in the 20th Century. If you want to see how that power can be misused, without a system of checks and balances, then look at Hitler's Germany or Stalin's Russia. I lived through the Vietnam War and the enemies list. I do not believe that we should leave it to people like Robert McNamera to determine what is an acceptable idea and what isn't. The internet is a far more powerful medium for the exchange of ideas than any previously existing medium of expression. We are going to need to protect our Constitutional rights here. That will not be done by surrendering decision making power over what we will be allowed to do here to people who have no clue about technology and are not very concerned about individual rights. My ideas about a digital identity vault were precisely oriented toward solving some of the security issues over the net with state of the art technology. An identity vault allows everyone to know "you are who you say you are" over the net. That in itself is a tremendous step forward for national security. I am perfectly willing to put information into that vault that uniquely identifies me because I know that access to that information will be restricted. If I commit a crime then I expect a Judge to issue a search warrant to get access to the information that would identify me. I see the digital identity vault as separating me from those who have something to hide without me revealing all of my personal information to everyone. Clearly criminals will not put their identities into an identity vault! I do not believe the government should be poking around in people's email files looking for anything unless there is evidence that a person has committed a crime --- sufficient evidence to go to a Court of Law and obtain a search warrant. In application this means I don't consider it right that some computer file in which I correspond with my mistress (I don't have one folks) should be disclosed to someone by some state prosecutor for political purposes. (If you don't think people go after people in the current political atmosphere you must have been sleeping through the impeachment and those Lewinsky tapes.) I don't consider it right for the state to examine my internet computer data transmissions for evidence of a crime using massive computers filtering as is done in Saudi Arabia. There has to be some burden of proof met before we let the state do these things. Digitalme and digital identity vaults are a much better way for law enforcement to separate the crooks from the good citizens. You don't have to set up a system in which every piece of data transmitted over the internet is screened in order to catch the criminals. You simply set up a system in which people such as myself can securely store their digital identities in a place the criminals will never visit. I see digitalme and digital identity vaults as the city walls protecting the ancient civilization. Let the criminals wander in the internet desert because if they come into our digital identity vault, they are going to have to tell us who they are. As it now stands a criminal can steal my user id and spread the Melissa virus --- that is the level of security that ISP's currently provide and that is why law enforcement is trying to get more powers. Our industry isn't doing it's job to protect the public. My current ISP uses a formula to generate user ids similar to the one that the fellow who spread the Melissa virus cracked. IT's frightening to me that even after I pointed this out to their chief honcho they haven't done anything about it. That is precisely why we need digitalme.

To: PJ Strifas who wrote (27858)	8/24/1999 9:24:00 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Respond to of 42771

The Power To Do Good.... >>What you folks are saying is that power to do good things has too many negative POSSIBILITIES which make you uncomfortable. So you'd much rather they didn't have the ability (or power) to do their job so you could sleep better at night. Am I following your arguement correctly?>> ....is possessed by ALL. But very few practice this. The government's record on "good" is not very good. Why does DC ranks last in crime and education - right next door? If the US government's model actually GAVE or CREATED positive energy then DC would be right up there at the top of the list for there'd be a ripple effect. Less government usually means more freedom and more progress in the private sector. The Welfare Reform Act is a good recent example. I think people should take responsibility for securing the virtual Kindgom. Evangalisation of products like DigitalMe is a good first step. If I take the step to secure my identity or identities via DigitalMe, then those who don't secure their virtual vaults are the ones to be watched by all of us. If individuals don't step into this security vacuum, then government WILL. CESA is a perfect example of BIG Brother knocking. When he knocks, watch your wallet and check your freedom barometer. Both tend to get impacted negatively when government takes on anything. As far as "doing their job is concerned" there should be extreme check and balances to prevent them from crossing the line in ways which restrict our freedoms. Peace. GO!!