Towards Better Excuses ...
At the Macintosh Crypto Conference today, Doug Barnes discussed sociological reasons why strong crypto is not being used by the mass public. Mr. Barnes, co-founder of C2 Net, a manufacturer of secure web server and other applications, commented that from his perspective, the only reason crypto is not being used by the mass public is sociological, and wanted to "move away from old excuses [why people don't use crypto,] and find some new, fresh excuses."Mr. Barnes then explained that the old excuses of unavailability of decent software, government export regulations, software being controlled by corporations who own the patents, etc. have no basis in fact. Decent software is available today, for all intents and purposes, export of crypto software can continue virtually unhindered, and patents on the basic technology have expired. Mr. Barnes contends that this leaves only the current sociological excuses; a general underlying social belief that one who uses privacy enhancing technologies "has something to hide."
According to Barnes, while it is difficult to offer a solution, certainly the direction must be towards general social acceptance of privacy. He continued by giving the analogy of hand-washing. Washing of one's hands is a socially ingrained behavior, "though many people don't wash their hands before eating at a restaurant, if a restaurant without a sink would be considered a serious public health issue." The issue of people using crypto is the same. Until social pressure encourages people to use strong crypto products, their use will remain the domain of a small few...
The slides of his presentation are available at http://www.io.com/~cman/ps/peoplestupid_files/frame.htm
