PGP creator joins UK privacy watchdog

PGP creator joins UK privacy watchdog

Cyber rights luminary Phil Zimmermann has joined the advisory council of influential UK privacy watchdogs the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR).

Zimmermann, best known as the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) who earned widespread acclaim for facing downs threats from the Feds when he exported his famous encryption program, said he was joining FIPR to further trans-Atlantic co-operation on civil liberties.

"I've always felt that efforts to preserve civil liberties must be pressed on both sides of the pond to be effective," said Zimmermann.

"I think our own government in the US found it harder to hang on to the crypto export controls after we made progress in the French and British domestic policies. Now we face tougher challenges, and we must face them together."

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Hey, Checkout? Does this help The Cause?
(Note: If we don't care....who will?)

 

Regrettably, not at all. The UK Government simply doesn't give a ****.

 

Hi Guys - thanks for the link.

Particularly given that PRZ is now at Stanford, IMHO his joining FIPR has to be seen as GOOD NEWS.

I'd not heard of FIPR before, but looking at their website www.fipr.org, there is a whole raft of real heavyweights involved, not least of whom is a Cambridge University academic called Ross Anderson, who is one of the (world's) foremost authorities on IT security, freedom, and the tensions between the two. Looking at the Trustees & Advisory Board list, it goes way beyond the 'normal suspects' type of campaigners and lobby groups I would expect to see represented.

Just as in the USA, the Executive arm of govt is much more concerned with 'control' than with 'rights', and sadly the only bit of the State which 'gets it' is concerned with security. Our esteemed legislators (and govt ministers) do not 'get it' at all.

Thus anything which raises the profile of a group like FIPR, and enriches the gene pool, has to help the cause - even if only a little bit.

Hey Checkout - FIPR is looking for a new Programme Director - interested?

 

Any career which allows me to swear at politicians is attractive...

 

Checkout:

I just wanted to say I like what you have at the bottom of your posts. I agree with you 100%!!!

MELISSA
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

Why, thank you, Melissa!