HIGH-TECH FIRMS WON'T OPPOSE DATA-SCRAMBLING CHIP
THEY'LL ACCEPT 'CLIPPER' PROPOSAL IF U.S. WILL EASE SOFTWARE EXPORT RULES.
By LEE GOMES Mercury News Staff Writer
With some privacy advocates crying foul, a group of prominent high-tech companies is dropping its opposition to a controversial White House proposal for a new data-scrambling chip in exchange for a relaxing of the federal rules restricting the export of scrambling software.
The Digital Privacy and Security Group, a collection of computer companies and related associations, said Monday that it could accept the administration's ''Clipper'' chip proposal if the chip's adoption was voluntary, and if other encryption software were available for sale, especially overseas.
What a sell-out (literally). Will these guys also support the government's right to conduct random house-to-house searches if they're promised a piece of the booty? And Clipper has ALWAYS been "voluntary" (at least so far), so that part of the deal is no victory at all. With friends like these... --Dave.