Noriko Takida
October 20,1998
SUMMARY
This article, "Is the FBI reading your E-mail?" is about the FBI being able to read our personal data in the future. The FBI does not read the data yet, however, a law that allows to read our personal data is being debated in Congress now. People are angry about making this kind of law. It might be good if there is a certain extent of secure encryption. The Internet and other networks are the ideal way to send massages to many people. However, nobody wants to send personal data without guarantees of security. The FBI says that encryption is no problem for ordinary people but sometimes too dangerous because terrorists or criminals may use their own encryption. Thus the government wants to keep a key that is strings of numbers because they worry about what terrorists may do with their encryption.
RESPONSE
I chose this article just because I was interested in the title when I saw it on the computer. I knew the FBI had power all over the United States but I thought even the FBI could not read our personal data. So that I was shocked when I read this article and realized it could happen. In my opinion, not only the FBI but nobody should have a right to read someone's personal data. If the law is passed, we can not keep our privacy. Personally, I do not think this article is very good because I feel there are a lot of opinions in this article rather than facts. In addition, I do not like this article because the vocabulary is too difficult for me. I used some dictionaries but I could not find some words in them.
VOCABULARY
1. equivalent(n)-----something that has the same value
equivalence(n)
equivalently(adv)
"The cyberspace equivalent of such a law is now being debated in Congress."
2. conceal(v)-----to hide something carefully
concealment(n)
"New forms of data scrambling allow even unsophisticated computer users to conceal their electronic messages in a secret code that is for all practical purposes unbreakable."
3. potential(n)-----the possibility
potentiality(n)
"Some degree of secure encryption is essential if electronic commerce is ever to fulfill its potential."
4. transmit(v)-----to send
transmissible(adj)
transmission(n)
transmissive(adj)
transmittal(n)
transmittable(adj)
transmittance(n)
transmitter(n)
"The Internet and other data networks will be the ideal way to transmit medical records, credit card numbers, or other commercial information."
5. grant(v)-----to give official permission
"The FBI grants the needs for security_up to a point."