------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 13:27:36 -0500 From: Dave Banisar Subject: File 3--AP Article on Clipper ++++ fwd ++++ Subject--Computer Users Blast Chip Plan From--The Associated Press, clarinews@clarinet.com Date--Thu, 17 Feb 94 22:30:07 PST Computer enthusiasts worried about electronic privacy are attacking the Clinton administration's proposed new computer privacy standard -- and they're putting their feelings on-line. "For an administration that's concerned with the information highway, they really are putting potholes in the highway before it gets built," said Jerry Berman, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Washington. The government's new standard, Key Escrow Encryption, was announced this month and is supposed to assure privacy during the current explosion in electronic communications. But computer users and the industry have bridled at a provision that guarantees that law enforcement and national security agencies would still be able to intercept all messages, including electronic mail and telephone signals, for lawfully authorized wiretaps. "John Q. Public is worried about other things, but when they learn that the government is proposing to design the locks for your electronic data messages, business transactions -- and then also keep the keys in a quote, safe, place of their choosing ... I don't think the public is going to accept it," Berman said in an interview. The system uses a microcircuit called the clipper chip to scramble messages on computers and other digital equipment. Manufacturers would not be forced to use the chips, but would be forbidden from exporting other encryption technology, to keep it from terrorists, drug dealers and others. The administration has said encryption is a law-and-order issue because it can be used by criminals to defeat wiretaps and avoid prosecution. It has strategic value in international affairs as well, officials say. Opponents of the plan, including the Business Software Alliance, maintain that U.S. companies will lose sales to overseas customers seeking the best security available, and that criminals will simply find other sources for the products. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility have begun electronic petition drives on the Internet, the worldwide on-line network of computers. The foundation said this week it has received 3,000 messages from computer users supporting a bill by Rep. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would loosen export controls on scrambling technology, effectively removing the clipper chip's advantage to manufacturers. "Much of this is ordinary, shrink-wrapped software, the kind millions of people buy every day for their home and business computers at regular retail outlets," Cantwell said in offering her bill. The computer professionals group has received 13,000 messages urging President Clinton to withdraw the clipper proposal and will deliver them to the White House, said Marc Rotenberg, the organization's Washington director. Talk about the proposal spread to computer networks outside the Internet as well. "Like they say, the devil is in the details," one man wrote on a computer bulletin board in central Indiana. "First, Clipper is voluntary. Then guess how long it will be until the use of any `non-approved' encryption is outlawed?" Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on technology, said this week that he strongly opposes the clipper proposal because of privacy and civil liberties concerns. Other opponents are expecting him to convene hearings on the plan. The dispute threatened to smudge the administration's image among the computer literati. Signs of high-tech's increased stature at the White House have included the presence of then-Apple Computer chairman John Sculley at Clinton's first address to Congress and Vice President Al Gore's support for an "information superhighway." The White House even set up an E-mail address for Clinton shortly after he took office. Jim Thomas, editor of Computer Underground Digest on the Internet, has watched the anti-clipper campaign building since Attorney General Janet Reno announced the proposal Feb. 4. "It's like fighting a juggernaut," said Thomas, a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Northern Illinois. "Some people think it's a done deal. But I'm highly optimistic that we'll beat it. I think the momentum is growing." =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ + END THIS FILE + +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+===+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=