abstract:

The issue of privacy in communication networks is not new; nor are the technical solutions that address the matter. This article examines how a broad range of organizations developed private telegraphy in response to privacy concerns in the nineteenth century. Over a century ago, the advent of electric telegraphy prompted the desire to send private messages over the wires. At the time, telegrams were like open letters, and such messages were visible to the clerks and operators who processed them. In response, entrepreneurs developed codebooks and cipher tools to prevent disclosure of sensitive information. Another popular method, as this article demonstrates, was the deployment of private telegraphic wires to enable peer-to-peer communication and prevent third party access. Private telegraphy, a new form of communication, was common in the United States and even more so in the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century.

摘要：

通信网络中的隐私问题并不新鲜；解决此问题的技术解决方案也没有。本文探讨了19世纪各种组织如何开发私人电报以应对隐私问题。一个多世纪以前，电子电报的出现促使人们渴望通过电线发送私人信息。当时，电报就像公开信一样，处理这些信息的职员和操作员都可以看到。作为回应，企业家开发了密码本和密码工具来防止敏感信息的泄露。如本文所示，另一种流行的方法是部署专用电报线路，以实现对等通信并阻止第三方访问。私人电报，一种新的交流方式，