:: The Yellow Wadi ::

Once again, we revisit one of my favorite issues - Encryption. The reason this time is the annual report by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center). EPIC is an organization that defines itself as "...established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values". For the last three years, EPIC issues an annual report about the state of encryption policies around the world. The annual survey categorizes every country in one of six categories: A "Red" category is for countries with sweeping restrictions on cryptography, "Yellow" indicates "Significant domestic controls" and "Green" is for countries with very light restrictions. Between these we can find "Red-Yellow" and "Yellow-Green". And now for the shocker - Over the last three years, Israel has climbed from "Red", through "Red-Yellow" to "Yellow". Is this good news or what? This indicates that the there is a slow, yet steady, process of common sense in our government. Real Science Fiction. Of course - There is still a long way ahead of us, until we reach "Green", like our eastern neighbor Jordan, or "Yellow-Green" like most of Europe, the U.S. and Japan. On the other hand - We have good company in the "Yellow" category - Countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and the UK.

Naturally, the people at EPIC see a strong correlation between cryptography laws and human rights status in every country. Does this mean that human rights in Israel have advanced from "Red" to "Yellow"? hmmm...

So - Next time you gripe about how bad things are in the wadi, and how everything you read in the papers is bad news, remember that sometimes it takes time for good things to happen, and that not everything red is good.

Wadi Writer #3 (Maroon)

WadiList@mail.com

Links:

EPIC - www.epic.org

Cryptography and Liberty 2000 - http://www2.epic.org/reports/crypto2000/

Previous WadiList about encryption - http://oocities.com/wadilist/0025.htm