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An Unsung Hero

By Charles Stampul

George Orwell’s classic novel 1984 depicts a world in which government controls all information. In Orwell’s world, individuals have no privacy, no freedom and no power. The world that Phil Zimmermann helped create is much different. In Zimmermann’s world people are free to keep secrets from the government and communicate with each other privately.

Zimmermann is not a novelist, but a computer programmer. The world he helped create is not fiction but reality. Zimmermann is the man who developed Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP, as it is more commonly known. PGP is a program that enables people to encrypt personal computer files and email messages in codes that are virtually impossible for anyone, including federal agents, to crack.

Zimmermann began developing his public key encryption program in the mid 80s. He was an antiwar activist who wanted a way to correspond with individuals in other nations who were afraid to communicate openly. In 1991 he made his software available to individual computer users free of charge, because he feared that if a significant number of people did not embrace encryption the federal government would succeed in its efforts to ban or control it.

At that time, however, exporting cryptography was a felony. So when the software appeared on servers outside the U.S., the federal government launched an investigation of Zimmermann that would last five years.

After the federal government dropped its case against him in 1996, Zimmermann founded Pretty Good privacy Inc. to market his software commercially. PGP emerged as the de facto standard in e-mail encryption. But the company failed to generate profits. Finding it difficult to stay afloat, Zimmermann sold PGP Inc. to Network Associates. The sale took place in December 1997, less than two years after Pretty Good Privacy Inc. was established.

Zimmermann relinquished full control of the company he created, but serving as a Senior Fellow for Network Associates he continued to “provide technical guidance and ensure PGP's cryptographic integrity.” In a recent press release, Zimmerman explained his reason for leaving the company last February to become Chief Cryptographer at Hush Communications:

“In the past three years, NAI has developed a different vision for PGP's future, and it's time for me to move on to other projects more fitting with my own objectives to protect personal privacy. To this end, I will be assisting the makers of HushMail, Hush Communications, to implement the OpenPGP standard in their future products. PGP was originally designed for human rights applications, and to protect privacy and civil liberties in the information age. By proliferating the OpenPGP standard, we can renew that promise, and continue the commitment to personal privacy that captured the imagination and participation of millions around the world.”

Zimmermann equates sending unsecured email to using postcards. People who use envelopes instead of postcards are not considered suspicious. Neither, in Zimmermann’s opinion, should those who choose to encrypt electronic messages. There are several reasons for law-abiding citizens to encrypt personal documents and emails. Perhaps the primary reason is to protect company secrets. If an executive fails to encrypt his files, and his laptop is lost or stolen, he can cost his company millions. Another reason to encrypt email messages and computer files is to prevent theft. To illustrate, if a man writes in an unsecured email that he keeps a large amount of money in his dresser drawer, a computer snoop can find out where he lives and burglarize his home.

Encryption can also be used to keep a person from being unfairly prosecuted. By securing information about his whereabouts, for example, a contractor who makes many large cash deposits, can keep agents from FinCEN, a newly created division of the federal government that seeks to stop money laundering, from capturing him while making a deposit and seizing his cash and other belongings.

Finally, by taking advantage of the technology Zimmermann has made available, people can cut down on solicitation. Information in unsecured email messages finds its way onto databases. The more databases a person’s name appears on the more credit card applications, donation requests and sales phone calls that person will receive.

Zimmermann believes that there’s nothing wrong with asserting your privacy. “The right to privacy is spread implicitly throughout the Bill of Rights. But when the United States Constitution was framed, the Founding Fathers saw no need to explicitly spell out the right to a private conversation. That would have been silly. Two hundred years ago, all conversations were private. If someone else was in earshot you could simply go behind the barn and have your conversation there. The right to privacy was a natural right, not just in the philosophical sense, but in a law-of-science sense.” Today, as Orwell’s novel predicted, protecting privacy is more difficult. Thanks to Phil Zimmerman, however, those who wish to fight Big Brother now have a means to do so.

Charles Stampul writes On Principle, an individualist ethics column, and is working on a novel called Progress. To read more of his work visit www.peerlesspress.net or write on_principle@hushmail.com