Privacy and the use of cell phones.

[Adam Shostack]

On Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 01:42:06PM -0000, Owen Lewis wrote:

| It's been touched on before that the views and concerns expressed by most
| who gather at such watering holes as ukcrypto are probably not
| representative of the general public but does any one know of other evidence
| to suggest that the European public is more concerned than the American that
| its discussions should not be open to eavesdropping?

US cell phone salesmen have taken great care to claim that "digital"
cell phones are perfectly safe, and the problems are only with the old 
analog ones.  So its an unusually well educated consumer who knows
that PCS is a little safer.

For cost reasons, I switched from a PCS to a digital phone which has
voice privacy as an option.  The phone has two modes for voice privacy 
"Privacy prefferred" and "privacy off."  There is no "privacy on."
That confused me until I discovered that there is no place where I can 
actually get OTA encryption.

Adam



-- 
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume