Newly Declassified Clipper Chip Documents (was Re: Netsurfer Digest: Vol. 07, #15)

[R. A. Hettinga]

At 9:38 PM -0400 on 5/18/01, Netsurfer Digest wrote:


> Newly Declassified Clipper Chip Documents
>
> The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has obtained documents
>revealing US intelligence policy regarding the use of the Clipper chip.
>Those with good memories will recall this mid-'90s US government proposal
>for the development and mandated use of an encryption chip that would
>allow law enforcement to decrypt all data - and by law it would be all
>encrypted data in the US - passing through the chips. The documents,
>obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the US
>considered sharing the technology with countries like China, Syria, and
>Pakistan - not exactly paragons of human rights enforcement. It also makes
>clear that the intelligent agencies unambiguously planned to mandate the
>insertion of the chip into all newly manufactured US phones and computers.
>In the face of fierce opposition from the public, the Clipper chip died an
>ugly death, but this does lift the veil a bit on an important bit of
>computing and crypto history.
> Documents: <http://www.epic.org/crypto/clipper/foia/>
>http://www.epic.org/crypto/clipper/foia/
> EPIC: <http://www.epic.org/> http://www.epic.org/

-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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