============================================================================== ___ _ _____ ____ _____ _ / _ \| | | ____| _ \_ _| | THE CRYPTO BATTLE HAS BEGUN! | |_| | | | _| | |_) || | | | CLINTON ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES CONTROL OF | _ | |___| |___| _ < | | |_| ENCRYPTION FOR AMERICANS ON U.S. SOIL |_| |_|_____|_____|_| \_\|_| (_) March 28, 1997 Do not forward this alert after May 1, 1997. This alert brought to you by: Center for Democracy and Technology Eagle Forum Electronic Frontier Foundation Voters Telecommunications Watch Wired Magazine _____________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents What's Happening Right Now What You Can Do Now Background What's At Stake Supporting Organizations _____________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW On March 26, 1997, the Clinton Administration proposed draft legislation which would, for the first time, impose DOMESTIC RESTRICTIONS on the ability of Americans to protect their privacy and security online. In its current form, the draft bill seeks to impose a risky "key-recovery" regime which would compel American citizens to ensure government access to their private communications. Law enforcement and national security agents would not even need a court order to access private decryption keys. Congress is currently considering three separate bills which would prohibit the government from imposing "key-recovery" domestically, and encourage the development of easy-to-use, privacy and security tools for the Net. As more and more Americans come online, the Administration's plan is a giant step backwards and would open a huge window of vulnerability to the private communications of Internet users. Americans expect more when conducting private conversations with their doctors, families, business partners, or lawyers. Please read the Alert below to find out what you can do to protect your privacy online. ________________________________________________________________________________ WHAT YOU CAN DO 1. Adopt Your Legislator Now is the time to increase our ranks and prepare for the fight that lies a head of us in Congress. The time to blast Congress or the White House with phone calls and emails will come, but now is not the appropriate moment. Instead, please take a few minutes to learn more about this important issue, and join the Adopt Your Legislator Campaign at http://www.crypto.com/adopt/ This will produce a customized page, just for you with your own legislator's telephone number and address. In addition, you will receive the latest news and information on the issue, as well as targeted alerts informing you when your Representatives in Congress do something that could help or hinder the future of the Internet. Best of all, it's free. Do your part, Work the Network! Visit http://www.crypto.com/adopt/ for details. 2. Beginning Monday March 31, call the White House Internet public interest advocates continue to work the Hill in support of the three true encryption reform bills in Congress, Pro-CODE, SAFE, & ECPA II. If you still feel a need to voice your opinion, however, you can call the White House to express your opinion. Step 1 - Beginning Monday March 31, call the White House Call 202-456-1111 9am-5pm EST. Ignore the voice mail survey and press '0' to get a comment line operator. Step 2 - Tell them what you think about intrusions into your privacy! Operator: Hello, White House comment line! SAY YOU: I'm calling to oppose president's Internet encryption bill. THIS -> It infringes on the privacy of Americans. We need a solution to the encryption issue that protects privacy, and this is not it. Operator: Thank you, I'll pass that along to the President. 3. Spread the Word! Forward this Alert to your friends. Help educate the public about the importance of this issue. Please do not forward after May 1, 1997. _____________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND Complete background information, including: * A down-to-earth explanation of why this debate is important to Internet users * Analysis and background on the issue * Text of the Administration draft legislation * Text of Congressional proposals to reform US encryption policy * Audio transcripts and written testimony from recent Congressional Hearings on encryption policy reform * And more! Are all available at http://www.crypto.com/ ________________________________________________________________________ WHAT'S AT STAKE Encryption technologies are the locks and keys of the Information age -- enabling individuals and businesses to protect sensitive information as it is transmitted over the Internet. As more and more individuals and businesses come online, the need for strong, reliable, easy-to-use encryption technologies has become a critical issue to the health and viability of the Net. Current US encryption policy, which limits the strength of encryption products US companies can sell abroad, also limits the availability of strong, easy-to-use encryption technologies in the United States. US hardware and software manufacturers who wish to sell their products on the global market must either conform to US encryption export limits or produce two separate versions of the same product, a costly and complicated alternative. The export controls, which the NSA and FBI argue help to keep strong encryption out of the hands of foreign adversaries, are having the opposite effect. Strong encryption is available abroad, but because of the export limits and the confusion created by nearly four years of debate over US encryption policy, strong, easy-to-use privacy and security technologies are not widely available off the shelf or "on the net" here in the US. A recently discovered flaw in the security of the new digital telephone network exposed the worst aspects of the Administration's encryption policy. Because the designers needed to be able to export their products, the system's security was "dumbed down". Researchers subsequently discovered that it is quite easy to break the security of the system and intrude on what should be private conversations. This incident underscores the larger policy problem: US companies are at a competitive disadvantage in the global marketplace when competing against companies that do not have such hindrances. And now, for the first time in history, the Clinton Administration has DOMESTIC RESTRICTIONS on the ability of Americans to protect their privacy and security online. All of us care about our national security, and no one wants to make it any easier for criminals and terrorists to commit criminal acts. But we must also recognize encryption technologies can aid law enforcement and protect national security by limiting the threat of industrial espionage and foreign spying, promote electronic commerce and protecting privacy. What's at stake in this debate is nothing less than the future of privacy and the fate of the Internet as a secure and trusted medium for commerce, education, and political discourse. ______________________________________________________________________________ SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS For more information, contact the following organizations who have signed onto this effort at their web sites. Center for Democracy and Technology http://www.cdt.org Press contact: Jonah Seiger, +1.202.637.9800 Eagle Forum http://www.eagleforum.org Press contact: Phyllis Schlafly, +1.314.721.1213 Electronic Frontier Foundation http://www.eff.org Press contact: Stanton McCandlish, +1.415.436.9333 Voters Telecommunications Watch http://www.vtw.org Press contact: Shabbir J. Safdar, +1.718.596.7234 Wired Magazine http://www.wired.com Press contact: Todd Lappin, +1.415.276.5224 ______________________________________________________________________________ end alert ==============================================================================