[Note from Matthew Gaylor: I can't think of much that can be more important than this for us to oppose. If you're concerned at all about your civil liberties then contact your representatives and demand that this bill not go forward. I'd take a dim view of somebody doing a black bag job on my house, providing they can bypass my Rottweilers and other security measures. But like I've always said "Don't worry about the dogs, worry about what I'll do."]
From: Adam Powell <apowell@freedomforum.org>
Subject: FC: Paging Mr. Liddy! Janet Reno wants you
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999
Posted to Politech the moderated mailing list of politics and technology at
http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
In a page-one exclusive, the Washington Post reports The Clinton administration is asking Congress for explicit authoriy for secret break-ins onto private property to lift and change computer encryption les. Under the proposed legislation, the US would approach a friendly judge, get a search warrant and then seal it, so you will have no notice: You won't know the J-folks were there until you tried to use your crypto softwareŠ
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/aug99/encryption20.htm
"The Justice Department wants to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to obtain search warrants to secretly enter suspects' homes or ofces and disable security on personal computers as a prelude to a wiretap or further search, according to documents and interviews with Clinton administration ofcialsŠ
"Legislation drafted by the department, called the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act, would enable investigators to get a sealed warrant signed by a judge permitting them to enter private property, search through computers for passwords and install devices that override encryption programs, the Justice memo showsŠ"
###
From: David Sobel [mailto:sobel@epic.org]
Sent: Friday, August 20, 1999 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: FC: Paging Mr. Liddy! Janet Reno wants you
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 1999
NEW WHITE HOUSE COMPUTER SURVEILLANCE PLAN
WOULD POSE UNPRECEDENTED THREAT TO PRIVACY
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) today warned that a new Clinton Administration proposal could result in an unprecedented intrusion into the sanctity of private homes and businesses. The Whit House plan would enable federal and local law enforcement agents to secretly break into private premises and alter computer equipment to collect e-mail messages and other electronic information.
As the Washington Post reported today, the administration is circulating draft legislation known as the "Cyberspace Electronic Security Act," the latest White House effort to address the growing use of encryption technology. As described in an August 4 analysis of the legislation obtained by EPIC, the proposal would amend current law to authorize "the alteration of hardware or software that allows plaintext to be obtained even if attempts were made to protect it through encryption." Courts would, for the first time, be able to approve covert police entries into homes and offices for the purposes of making such alterations.
"This strikes at the heart of the Bill of Rights," said David L. Sobel, EPIC's General Counsel. "It would be truly ironic if the use of encryption -- which is designed to protect privacy -- gve the police a green light to secretly break into homes." Surreptitious physical entries are extremely rare under existing surveillance laws. Such entries are only made in order to install hidden microphones, an investigative technique approved only 50 times by federal and state judges last year. According to Sobel, "extending this extraordinary power to cases involving computer files would make police break-ins far more common than they are today."
The latest administration proposal on computer surveillance comes on the heels of the "FIDNET" initiative, a planned government program that would monitor activity within both federal and private sector computer networks. When the details of that proposal became widely known earlier this month, it met with strong criticism from privacy groups (including EPIC) and members of Congress.
EPIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. EPIC is a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government. EPIC works in association with Privacy International, an international human rights group based in London, UK and is also a member of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, the Internet Free Expression Alliance and the Internet Privacy Coalition.
The EPIC website is located at http://www.epic.org
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....................................................................... David L. Sobel, General Counsel * +1 202 544 9240 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * +1 202 547 5482 (fax) 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Suite 301 * sobel@epic.org Washington, DC 20003 USA * http://www.epic.org.************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor,1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd.,#176, Columbus, OH 43229 Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/ **************************************************************************