At 2:38 PM -0800 2/25/00, Anton STIGLIC wrote:
> LogJam
>
> by CryptoPunk
Hardly. This bozo doesn't deserve to rip off our name for his nonsensical
rants.
...
>certain image, and more. Web servers are tracing your identity and
>keeping track of your movement and habits, this is an invasion of your
>privacy. Think of a web server as being a public grocery store, in
>society you have the right to go buy a loaf of bread without having the
>grocery clerk scan you, without revealing for example your telephone number,
>social insurance number or the store you went to just before.
Straw man. A grocery store will not have home phone numbers, social
insurance/insecurity numbers, etc., unless these are offered.
A better analogy is this: does a grocery store owner have the "right" to
remember the fact that Tim May bought several sixpacks of beer on his trip
to the grocer's store?
Of course.
For voluntary transactions, property owners may remember what they wish to
remember. They may also ask for information. Of course, a customer is free
to decline the transaction.
(Usually a store will favor completing a sale over collecting personal
information. Rarely is the demographic data they seek more valuable than
the profit on the sale; all the more so if the customer plans to walk away
from the transaction if the information is a condition of the transaction
being completed. Cases where vendors "demand" identity, personal
information, etc., are almost always cases where government has required
them to collect age or identity credentials and has established monopoly
power over such transactions. Guns, cigarettes, booze, and contraceptives
being the common examples.)
Failing to understand this essential element of voluntary transactions in a
free society marks the rest of your line of reasoning as pointless to read.
--Tim May
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
