Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption

by Whitfield Diffie, Susan Landau

1999 IEEE-USAB Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering Public Understanding of the Profession. and Winner of the 1998 Donald McGannon Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communication Policy Research

Telecommunication has never been perfectly secure, as a Cold War culture of wiretaps and international spying taught us. Yet many of us still take our privacy for granted, even as we become more reliant than ever on telephones, computer networks, and electronic transactions of all kinds. Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau argue that if we are to retain the privacy that characterized face-to-face relationships in the past, we must build the means of protecting that privacy into our communication systems.

Diffie and Landau strip away the hype surrounding the policy debate to examine the national security, law enforcement, commercial, and civil liberties issues. They discuss the social function of privacy, how it underlies a democratic society, and what happens when it is lost.

Genres: Nonfiction

342 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[David]

Got very nice autographs in the front cover from both authors: "To a wannabe cryptographer, keep the faith, Enigmatically, Susan", and "From a once and future wannabee, Whit". :-)

[Nicholas]

Simply put, if you want to know more about privacy issues and/or surveillance technologies, this book is a must-read. This author knows what she is talking about. This issues are becoming much more relevant, as the Supreme Court has taken up these issues and domestic law enforcement officials are increasingly relying on electronic surveillance.

[Michael Powe]

Surprisingly well-written and certainly relevant to the modern state of electronic eavesdropping. Whitfield Diffie was co-creator of public key encryption, which is today critical to sensitive data storage around the world.

[Yvonne]

Interesting explanation of the tradeoffs between privacy and security - including debunking of conventional wisdom about the necessity of law enforcement tools such as wiretaps.