Current mass-market communications technology is very insecure. User adoption rates for encryption of emails, instant messages, and phone calls are for all intents nil. Even the use of cookie-free, untraceable internet browsing is extremely low, despite its extreme ease. Legal protection for the privacy of such communications is scarcely any better. Witness, for example, the 2007 scandal wherein the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence committee was entrapped and blackmailed by a national intelligence agency seeking expanded surveillance powers. The authority for roaming, warrantless wiretaps has been claimed by presidents from both political parties.

*Outline -Form of a solution: the device. *Why doesn't it exist? Supply side: -firmware/chipsets patented... scale? -regulatory issues -lack of competition/barriers to entry *How else might it be implemented -the network? skype, google voice... -or private routers and a mesh grid *Legislative or regulatory response?

Work in progress, nowhere near done.

-- HarryLayman - 18 Nov 2009