Question

Read this quote from Zimmermann in The Code Book.

In the past, if the government wanted to violate the privacy of ordinary citizens, it had to expend a certain amount of effort to intercept and steam open and read paper mail, or listen to and possibly transcribe spoken telephone conversations. This is analogous to catching fish with a hook and a line, one fish at a time. Fortunately for freedom and democracy, this kind of labor-intensive monitoring is not practical on a large scale. Today, electronic mail is gradually replacing conventional paper mail, and is soon to be the norm for everyone, not the novelty it is today. Unlike paper mail, e-mail messages are just too easy to intercept and scan for interesting keywords. This can be done easily, routinely, automatically, and undetectably on a grand scale. This is analogous to driftnet fishing—making a quantitative and qualitative Orwellian difference to the health of democracy.

What is the purpose of the quote from Zimmermann?

It explains how much faster e-mail travels than ordinary mail.
It shows how easily digital mail can be monitored by outsiders.
It states exactly how many people use e-mail instead of regular mail.
It proves that e-mail is better for the health of democracy than regular mail.

Answer 1

It shows how easily digital mail can be monitored by outsiders. The passage argues that e‑mail can be intercepted and scanned automatically and at scale, creating a greater privacy threat than paper mail.