Interesting New Privacy Software

[Dinner]

There was a criminal investigation into the PGP guy for violating export controls, but it never led to any charges being filed - that's the closest the government has come to interfering with the program. (There's also at least one open-source implementation available, so anybody patient and paranoid enough can confirm that there aren't any backdoors. This is leaving aside the difficulty of putting a backdoor on encryption software - it's not as though you can hack it so that the intended key and the super-secret NSA-installed key can both decrypt the file.)

OK, that's good to know.

[loinburger]

I forget if I mentioned this in my cryptography thread or not, but if you're in a country that limits you to 40-bit keys then you should not encrypt your data (assuming you're doing something illegal) - the government can brute-force your 40-bit key, so all you're accomplishing by encrypting your shizznit is flagging it as "interesting." If you instead spam a crapton of unencrypted garbage with a small amount of unencrypted interesting stuff scattered around in it then it'll be much more difficult for the government to figure out what you're up to.

[loinburger]

Also, you should do all of your computing in a Faraday cage.

[KrazyHorse]

Inside a faraday cage it's probably safe to take off your tinfoil hat

[loinburger]

A recent study actually found that tinfoil hats make you more susceptible to mind-control rays.

[KrazyHorse]

That's why I wear a full tinfoil balaclava with small eye holes