[kwlug-disc] Interested in a presentation about Privacy?

[Kyle Spaans]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 11:15 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:
> What is identity (perhaps only for key signing purposes)?

I've haven't started preparing much yet for the key signing, but AFAICT
identitiy in this case will be an email address, and the (optional) "handle"
that goes along with it. (Because PGP seems to be designed around
email usage.)

> For that matter, what is anonymity.

I learned all about this at school this Winter in my Security and Privacy class,
so I'll be talking about it during my presentation. I won't give you a
full answer,
but consider the "nymity scale":
- verynymity
- pseudonymity
- linkable anonymity
- unlinkable anonymity
Examples of each being:
- you present your government ID, or credit card
- you use a handle or "nom-de-plume"
- you use a prepaid phone card
- you pay in cash

PGP can give you pseudonymity or linkable anonymity, or even verynyminity if
you chose so. I'm pretty sure that if you simply generate a keypair
and link it to
user12345 at gmail.com, then people won't be able to find out _who_ you are,
but they will know that it's _you_ every time you send email. (But of course
they can't really trust the signature very much, because there could
be an entire
small community in Elbonia who is using that keypair -- it's unverified.)