------ ======================================================================== __ _________ __ \ \ / /_ _\ \ / / Voters Telecommunications Watch \ \ / / | | \ \ /\ / / (vtw@vtw.org) \ V / | | \ V V / May 6, 1996 \_/ |_| \_/\_/ Redistribute only until 5/28/96 TRANSCRIPT OF ONLINE CHAT WITH SENATOR BURNS (R-MT) AVAILABLE AT ENCRYPTION POLICY RESOURCE CENTER (HTTP://WWW.CRYPTO.COM) SENATOR BURNS IS SCHEDULED TO APPEAR AT HOTWIRED: MONDAY 5/13/96 9PM EST Please widely redistribute this document with this banner intact until May 28, 1996 ________________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS The Latest News Schedule of upcoming chats related to encryption About VTW and Whistlestop96 ________________________________________________________________________ THE LATEST NEWS Senator Burns went online tonight and discussed encryption and his new bill, PRO-CODE, with Internet users in America Online's News Room auditorium. The full transcript of this session is available at http://www.crypto.com/. Some highlights from the fifty minute discussion: Question : Senator Burns, As a small business in Montana that provides web-space to local Montana businesses, I'm concerned that the lack of privacy and security on the Net will keep many of my potential customers from purchasing online. How will this bill help? Sen Burns : That's exactly why I introduced this bill. Right now I don't think any of us feel safe transmitting our credit card numbers over the Internet, and many companies who have workers around the nation or world are worried about how they can safely send sensitive information back and forth between them. If we can raise their level of security, we can guarantee that that information will be sent without unwanted eyes looking in. Question : What do you think the Administration, FBI, and NSA reaction to your bill will be? Have you already heard from them? (I run an ISP in Missoula, Montana.) Sen Burns : We expect them to have some concern with this, and we will work with them but we have to undertsnad that the people we are concerned with can already gain encryption that is already longer than 40 bits on teh international market. The transcript is the property of America Online, who retains the copyright. ________________________________________________________________________ SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING CHATS RELATED TO ENCRYPTION Sen. Burns Hotwired: Monday May 13, 9pm EST Sen. Leahy America Online: date not yet available Hotwired: date not yet available You can connect to AOL over the Internet through a SLIP/PPP connection or by dialing up one of their services. Download the AOL client software from URL:ftp://ftp.aol.com/ and install it. HotWired's Club Wired is easy to reach. Go to the WWW page URL:http://www.hotwired.com/club/ and follow the instructions. ________________________________________________________________________ ABOUT VTW AND WHISTLESTOP96 VTW (Voters Telecommunications Watch) is an Internet-based grass-roots advocacy group concentrating on issues of civil liberties and telecommunications. Whistlestop96 is VTW's project to bring more members of Congress and Congressional candidates to online chats to talk about core Internet issues with net users. We do not accept unsolicited donations at this time. If you want to help, register to vote at URL:http://www.vtw.org/ivoter/ . For more information on encryption policy, please see the following resources: Encryption Policy Resource Page: http://www.crypto.com/ Internet Privacy Coalition: http://www.privacy.org/ ...run by these fine organizations: Center for Democracy and Technology: http://www.cdt.org/ Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org/ Electronic Privacy Information Center: http://www.epic.org/ Voters Telecommunications Watch: http://www.vtw.org/ ________________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1994-1996, Voters Telecommunications Watch ========================================================================