Judge Hashin: Internet Surveys Are Not Reliable

The most recent elections for Prime Minister gave The Chairman of the Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Mishal Hashin, more than one opportunity to express his views about the Internet. His central decision, on the connection between the freedom of expression and the Internet, was reviewed at length in this column about two weeks ago. It now transpires that the ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order

On 16th September 1999 the Clinton Administration announced a new, far more lenient export policy in respect of encryption commodities. After years during which the American security agencies had claimed that the free export of means of encryption would endanger national security and had required encryption programs to leave a "back door" through which they could access the hidden information, ...

The Battle for Email

The State Attorney, Edna Arbel, recently (May 2000) laid down policy that email that is not in the possession of an Internet service provider but is likely to pass through its computers in the future, can only be seized, kept and copied after an appropriate order has been obtained by virtue of the Secret Monitoring Law, 5739-1979. Arbel thereby accepted ...

Junk Email

On 23rd February, the General Assembly of the State of Virginia adopted a statute against unsolicited e-mail advertising, commonly known as junk mail or spam. Sending junk mail has become a contravention in Virginia, liable to a fine of $ 500. Mail that causes damage in excess of $ 2,500 to an individual user is now a misdemeanour. The statute ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order (Third Part)

Secrets have special standing in Israeli law. As the Supreme Court has stated: "There are those who view the trade secret as property... and others view it as 'quasi-property' or a proprietary interest... Nevertheless, it would appear that everyone accepts that the trade secret does 'exist' in law and that the law provides means to protect against its exploitation without ...

The Unreasonableness of The Israeli Encryption Order (Second Part)

Alongside its traditional military and defence applications, encryption is used in modern communications to encode cellular phone calls; for the security of information sent from Internet browsers to e-commerce sites; the protection of intellectual property in computer files; the management of virtual networks that link remote sites by the Internet; the verification of contracting parties' identities; the security of computer ...

Internet Privacy

At this very moment (January - February 1999) events are highlighting the Internet’s sensitivity to privacy. US privacy protection organisations (like http://www.epic.org) have declared a boycott on the giant Intel (http://www.intel.com), having announced that its new processor, the Pentium III, will include an individual processor serial number (PSN). The number will make it possible to identify the ...