-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=PLEASE REDISTRIBUTE THIS MESSAGE WIDELY!!=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -=-=-=-For copyright information, please see the end of this file.-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Electronic Privacy -- A Call to Action This is a pivotal moment in history. The national security state, with the backing of the Clinton-Gore administration, is attempting a stealth strike on our rights. If they succeed, we could shortly find ourselves under a government with the automated ability to log the time, origin, and recipient of every call and e-mail message, to monitor our most private communications, to track our physical whereabouts continuously, and to keep better account of our financial transactions than we do -- all without a warrant. Fact: On Friday, February 4, 1994, the Clinton administration announced support for the Clipper Chip and SKIPJACK encryption scheme as national standards. Fact: Federal security agencies have been meeting with telecommunications companies to design back doors into the entire National Information Infrastructure (NII), including every telephone and data network, even including fax machines. In other words, any system connected to the NII would be required to include a "back door" in order to facilitate monitoring by government agencies. We at WIRED Online believe that the adoption of these administration initiatives could result in a profound infringement of individual freedom and privacy, ours as well as yours. We urge you to read the rest of this letter, to examine the available materials, to consider these important issues for yourself, and to act to preserve the Bill of Rights in cyberspace. The proposed encryption scheme, which uses the SKIPJACK encryption algorithm and the Clipper Chip, relies on a "key escrow" system with a built-in "back door" so that security agents can decrypt and monitor even supposedly "secure" communications. While the administration claims that there will be "safeguards," the technology was developed by the virtually insular National Security Agency, and its algorithms remain classified. The scope of Clipper is significantly broader than any previous surveillance strategy. The Clipper Chip will be installed directly into telecommunications devices such as telephones, computers, and digital set- top boxes for interactive TV. Since the system can be used to encrypt any communications that pass across telecommunications lines (including text, sound and images), ANY AND ALL communication that passes through your system has the possibility of being intercepted. In addition, the administration's Information Infrastructure Task Force Working Group on Privacy is attempting to "front load" the NII with trapdoor technologies that would allow security agencies easy access to digitial conversations, including capturing electronic communications midstream. No communication system would be exempt from this effort, from the national telephone network to your local office computer network. Of course, the administration claims that these trapdoors will be used only to catch criminals and that your privacy will be protected. But, as John Perry Barlow has put it, "trusting the government with your privacy is like trusting a Peeping Tom to install your window blinds." These government inititatives, taken together, constitute one of the most grievous threats to our constitutional liberties in modern times. The security agencies and the administration are involved in a stealth strike at our freedoms that could effectively abrogate the Bill of Rights in cyberspace, where we and our descendants will be spending increasingly larger parts of lives. The Clipper initiative and the plans to require "back doors" throughout the NII immediate critical assessment. WIRED encourages you to seriously consider how these proposals might affect you. To help inform your decision, WIRED Online has set up a Clipper information archive through our Infobot mail server, Internet Gopher, World Wide Web, and other online sites. The WIRED Online Clipper Archive features crucial essays written for WIRED by John Perry Barlow and Brock N. Meeks. If you do nothing else, read these stories. You can have them sent to you immediately by electronic mail by copying the following three lines into the body of an electronic mail message addressed to infobot@wired.com: send clipper/privacy.meeks send clipper/privacy.barlow end The WIRED Online Clipper Archive also includes re-posted comments from Jerry Berman (of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)) and Dorothy Denning (encryption expert and Clipper proponent), a copy of the EFF's _EFFector Online_ newsletter documenting the Clipper controversy, and an electronic anti-Clipper petition circulated by the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR). We have also set up links to other valuable sources of information on Clipper, including those maintained by the EFF and CPSR. You can access our archive via the following WIRED Online services: o WIRED Infobot e-mail server send e-mail to infobot@wired.com, containing the words "send clipper/index" on a single line inside the message body o WIRED Gopher gopher to gopher.wired.com select "Clipper Archive" o WIRED on World Wide Web http://www.wired.com select "Clipper Archive" o WIRED on America Online keyword: WIRED o WIRED on the WELL type "go wired" from any "OK" prompt type "clipper" to access the menu WIRED Online encourages you to take the time to familiarize yourself with these issues, beginning with the tools and access we've provided. Then take the next step -- ACT!!! Sign the CPSR petition against Clipper. Call or write your Congressional representatives and let them know how you feel about the Clipper and NII "backdoor" initiatives, BEFORE a decision is made for you that will have a profound effect on the future of your freedom and privacy. Please do not reply to this message directly. To discuss these issues with WIRED readers and staff members, please use discussion areas on the WELL, America Online, and USENET (alt.wired). If you have questions or comments about Clipper that are not answered in the online archives or these discussion spaces, please address them to online@wired.com and be sure to include the word "clipper" in the subject line. If you would like to receive future WIRED-related bulletins, you can subscribe to our new Hotwired mailing list. To do so, just send an e-mail message to infobot@wired.com containing the line subscribe hotwired This low-volume moderated list is a great way to keep abreast of important issues on the Digital Frontier and to find out about new services offered here at WIRED Online. Thanks for your attention. -- The staff of WIRED Online =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=WIRED Online Copyright Notice=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Copyright 1993,4 Wired USA Ltd. All rights reserved. This article may be redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. This article may not under any circumstances be resold or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from Wired Ventures, Ltd. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from WIRED Online, please contact us via telephone (+1 (415) 904 0660) or e-mail (info@wired.com). WIRED and WIRED Online are trademarks of Wired Ventures, Ltd. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=