John Markoff on “trusted computing”

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Technology
July 3rd, 2003 • 4:40 pm

New York Times writer John Markoff has a good column on “trusted computing” à la Microsoft:

Microsoft’s use of the term ‘trusted computing’ is a great piece of doublespeak,” said Dan Sokol, a computer engineer based in San Jose, Calif., who was one of the original members of the Homebrew Computing Club, the pioneering PC group. “What they’re really saying is, ‘We don’t trust you, the user of this computer.’ ”

What I find particularly scary is Bill Gates’ own denial:

Microsoft is committed to “working with the government and the entire industry to build a more secure computing infrastructure here and around the world,” Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, told a technology conference in Washington on Wednesday. “This technology can make our country more secure and prevent the nightmare vision of George Orwell at the same time.”

The more he says things like that, the more I am afraid that George Orwell’s vision is precisely what they — Bill Gates, George Bush, John Ashcroft, and all the cronies — are realizing. Double speak is everywhere. Trust no one — especially not the self-proclaimed purveyors of trust and security.


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