Date: Tue Aug 31 19:55:52 1999 From: advo@best.com (Advocates for Self-Government) Subject: Liberator OnLine, Vol. 4, No. 17 To: liberator@lists.best.com Reply-To: liberator-request@lists.best.com
THE LIBERATOR ONLINE
August 31, 1999 Vol. 4, No. 17 Circulation: 30,776 in 81 countries
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Big Brother Wants "In" -- To Your Computer
The Clinton Department of Justice has drafted legislation that would allow federal and local law enforcement agents to secretly break into people's homes and businesses in order to disable encryption software and computer security systems on personal computers.
Police could also search for passwords and alter computer equipment to secretly collect email messages and other electronic information.
The proposal - ironically entitled "The Cyberspace Electronic Security Act" -- would allow judges to issue secret, "sealed" warrants permitting government agents to enter private property, search computers, and install software to override encryption programs. The government could then secretly intercept computer communications without having to try to decode encrypted messages.
Department of Justice officials maintain the proposal is "consistent with constitutional principles." However, the plan has outraged civil liberties advocates.
Normally, under the Fourth Amendment, the government must first obtain a court order from a judge (based on a finding of probable cause) before searching private property -- and must present that search warrant to the suspect. Secret break-ins and searches are extremely rare under current law; such entries are only made in order to install hidden microphones, andlargely concerning matters of foreign intelligence/national security. Only 50 such entries were allowed by federal and state judges last year.
However, privacy advocates fear that the White House plan to extend this power to domestic computer cases would mean that secret warrants and secret break-ins would become a common law enforcement tool
"Under this new proposal, a rare and little-used law enforcement tactic might become as common as computers," warns Steve Dasbach, National Director of the Libertarian Party. "This represents a huge expansion of narrowly defined exceptions to Fourth Amendment protections -- and represents a genuine danger to anyone who uses computers and encryption software."
"This is beyond the wildest imagination of the most paranoid people who have been following this issue over the years - it's one of the scariest proposals to come out of government in a long time," said David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This strikes at the heart of the Bill of Rights."
(Sources: Washington Post (August 20); Libertarian Party media release; Electronic Privacy Information Center; Freematt's Alerts; Insight magazine; Reuters.)