People won’t use these networks if they don’t trust them. Internet is run by an increasingly large group of organizations, and nobody is responsible for security. That means users have to be able to protect themselves, and encryption is the solution. [Unless privacy and access issues are solved with an acceptable public policy, similar to the rules that govern the telephone system today,] you create fundamental problems for democracy.
Predictor: Weitzner, Daniel J.
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for The Wall Street Journal, Laurie Hays writes about social questions raised by the Internet. She interviews Daniel Weitzner of the Electronic Freedom Foundation: ”‘People won’t use these networks if they don’t trust them,’ says Daniel Weitzner, senior staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group for computer users. ‘Internet is run by an increasingly large group of organizations, and nobody is responsible for security. That means users have to be able to protect themselves, and encryption is the solution.’ Unless privacy and access issues are solved with an acceptable public policy, similar to the rules that govern the telephone system today, he adds, ‘you create fundamental problems for democracy.'”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Wall Street Journal
Title, headline, chapter name: Technology (A Special Report): A New World – Personal Effects: Amid All the Talk About the Wonders of the Networks, Some Nagging Social Questions Arise
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?INT=0&SelLanguage=0&TS=1046812098&Did=000000028091201&Fmt=3&Deli=1&Mtd=1&Idx=42&Sid=1&RQT=309
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney