INFORMATION ABOUT THE CLIPPER WIRETAP CHIP

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The Clipper chip has been designed and introduced by the Federal government to standardize encryption technology so that law enforcement agencies can listen in on "private" conversations in electronic media. The device will initially be installed in government phones, and AT&T will also sell it for individual and business use. It is clear that the government would very much like the Clipper to become the standard for all future domestic electronic "private" communication. Many respected professionals in telecommunications and related industries fear that the government may soon make moves to outlaw or otherwise kill other encryption technology that could compete with the Clipper.

This is not unlike the government demanding that you give them a sealed copy of all your future phone conversations and other computer-facilitated communications, just in case they ever want to open and examine them later.

A pertinent quote from John Perry Barlow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

The legal right to express oneself is meaningless if there is no secure medium through which that expression may travel. By the same token, the right to hold certain unpopular opinions is forfeit unless one can discuss those opinions with others of like mind without the government listening in.

…there is a kind of corrupting power in the ability to create public policy in secret while assuring that the public will have little secrecy of its own…

This message contains announcements from the White House, AT&T, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and various news articles. Technical details and darker, deeper, evaluations of the Clipper project are available; see the usenet newsgroup sci.crypt for current info and pointers.

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE

From: clipper@csrc.ncsl.nist.gov (Clipper Chip Announcement)

Subject: White House Public Encryption Management Fact Sheet

Organization: National Institute of Standards & Technology

Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1993 20:44:58 GMT

Note: The following was released by the White House today in conjunction with the announcement of the Clipper Chip encryption technology.

http://www.austinlinks.com/Crypto/non-tech.html