Eric Winkelman » 2009 » April » 27 http://ericwinkelman.com Making the Internet Safe for Geeks Mon, 04 May 2009 15:03:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Sometimes, encryption isn’t enough http://ericwinkelman.com/2009/04/27/sometimes-encryption-isnt-enough/ http://ericwinkelman.com/2009/04/27/sometimes-encryption-isnt-enough/#comments Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:14:40 +0000 Eric http://ericwinkelman.com/?p=135 One of the advantages of using encrypted email, is that your message won’t trip some piece of mindless data mining software. Remember, a few years ago, when the FBI was running around investigating an Elementary School Teacher because profiling software picked her as a potential terrorist?

Well, using encryption may not be enough.

An article in PC Pro discusses plans in the UK to do profiling based on who you communicate with:

As with the original scheme, the actual content of the phone calls and messages won’t be recorded, just the dates, duration and location/IP address of messages sent.

From this information, they’ll pick the next set of Elementary School Teachers that need to be investigated for possible links to terrorists. It makes me wonder; how many of us are only a few degrees of separation away from someone under suspicion?

Sadly, encryption alone isn’t going to help you here. You’ll need encryption and anonymity.

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