For the first time in history, the National Security Agency “is now deeply involved in the design of the public telecommunications network.” … The involvement of the National Security Agency in the design of our telephone networks is a violation of federal statutes … If the National Security Agency, FBI, and other law enforcement organizations have their way – the design of the national telecommunications network will end up classified and withheld from the public.
Predictor: Sobel, David
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article for Wired magazine, Brock Meeks, a reporter for Communications Daily, a Washington, D.C.-based trade publication, writes a reflection on his experience at a panel discussion held by the Clinton administration’s Information Infrastructure Task Force Working Group on Privacy in the first quarter of 1994. Meeks quotes David Sobel, counsel for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, writing: ”Law enforcement agencies know their window of opportunity for asserting their influence is open right now, right at the time the government is about to make a fundamental shift in how it deals with privacy issues within the networks that make up the NII [National Information Infrastructure], says David Sobel, general counsel for Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, who also addressed the Working Group on Privacy. ‘Because of law enforcement’s concerns (regarding digital technologies), we’re seeing an unprecedented involvement by federal security agencies in the domestic law enforcement activities,’ Sobel said, adding that, for the first time in history, the National Security Agency ‘is now deeply involved in the design of the public telecommunications network.’ Go ahead. Read it again. Sobel backs up his claims with hundreds of pages of previously classified memos and reports obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The involvement of the National Security Agency in the design of our telephone networks is, Sobel believes, a violation of federal statutes. Sobel is also concerned that the public might soon be looking down the throat of a classified telecommunications standard. Another move he calls ‘unprecedented’ is that – if the National Security Agency, FBI, and other law enforcement organizations have their way – the design of the national telecommunications network will end up classified and withheld from the public.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Role of Govt./Industry
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: The End of Privacy: If Privacy Isn’t Already the First Roadkill Along the Information Superhighway, Then it’s About to Be
Quote Type: Partial quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.04/privacy.meeks_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney