EFFector Online Volume 1 Number 07

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· 5 years ago

  

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      Volume 1                                             Issue:1.07 
      Friday                                             June 7, 1991 

                    SENATE ANTI-ENCRYPTION BILL WITHDRAWN 
            WILL BE REPLACED BY A NEW OMNIBUS CRIME BILL -- S.1241 
          SENSE OF CONGRESS LANGUAGE RESTRICTING ENCRYPTION REMOVED 

 
    When Senate Bill 266 was proposed, some of its provisions would have 
restricted the rights of individuals to secure online communications 
through the use of encryption programs. The specific language was: 

           "It is the sense of Congress that providers of 
           electronic communications services and manufacturers 
           of electronic communications service equipment shall 
           ensure that communications systems permit the 
           government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, 
           data, and other communications when appropriately 
           authorized by law." 

    Let stand, this language would have a chilling effect on encryption. 
It would inevitably compromise individual privacy in telecommunications. 
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and several other groups determined 
to oppose this provision. 

    In the last issue of EFFector Online, we reported we would register 
our opposition to this clause. In this case, Senator Patrick Leahy (D. 
Vermont), who chairs the sub-committee on Technology and the Law --a 
sub-set of the Senate Judiciary Committee-- was the key to this issue. 

    This week the EFF met with Leahy's staff to present our reasons for 
the removal of the language dealing with encryption. Today, we were 
informed that the encryption clause has been eliminated from the new 
crime bill which replaced the bill originally known as S.266. In 
addition, Leahy's sub-committee on Technology and the Law has undertaken 
to study the issues of encryption and telecommunications technology. 

    To continue this dialogue, Computer Professionals for Social 
Responsibility, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and RSA will be 
holding an invitational workshop on privacy and encryption in Washington 
later this month.  Following the workshop, a press conference will be 
held to announce a set of policy recommendations on cryptography. 

   The conference will take place on Monday at 2:00 at the National 
Press Club (14th & Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.).  All interested parties 
are invited to attend. 

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