NPR did a (for them, anyway) well-balanced piece on the wiretap chip this morning. Per their standard, the reporter (Dan Charles) had sound bites from both sides: Whit Diffie, representing the strong-privacy-through-crypto crowd, and the (acting?) director of NIST, Raymond whose-last-name-I-forget. Highlights: Diffie compared Clipper to a real estate lockbox. The feds don't have to have the key to the house (=phone), just the key to the lockbox. If you change your Clipper key, the chip keeps a copy. NIST guy said that he strongly supports individual privacy, but law enforcement needs have to be counted, too. Diffie (rough quote): "Technology makes policy. If the gov't spends hundreds of millions of dollars on a chip which allows them to tap phones, they will do so because the technology's there." Good for NPR. A balanced piece. -Paul -- Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG | HELP STOP THE BIG BROTHER CHIP! NTI Mission Software Development Div. | RIPEM key on request.