The assault on privacy

Deja-Donk

“ The New York Times reported this morning on a Federal government plan to put government-mandated back doors in all communications systems, including all encryption software. The Times  said the Obama administration is drafting a law that would impose a new "mandate" that all communications services be "able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages" — including ordering "[d]evelopers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication [to] redesign their service to allow interception". Electronics Frontier Foundation

Something about this triggered my brainal Clinton deja-vu  alarm. To the archives then!  Posted below are some headers from c. 1997 Free Republic.  Yup.  The bastids never give up.  What really struck me however are some small things, like New World Order Assault On Privacy.  Can you imagine any such alert coming from today's MSNBC?  The NY Times's Online Groups Mount an Effort To Fight Clinton on Encryption similarly surprised, although if I had the full article maybe not so much.  The most jarring thing along these lines though, is from the EFF story. “   In a 1999 decision in the EFF-led Bernstein case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed that     [w]hether we are surveilled by our government, by criminals, or by our neighbors, it is fair to say that never has our ability to shield our affairs from prying eyes been at such a low ebb. The availability and use of secure encryption may offer an opportunity to reclaim some portion of the privacy we have lost. Government efforts to control encryption thus may well implicate not only the First Amendment rights of cryptographers intent on pushing the boundaries of their science, but also the constitutional rights of each of us as potential recipients of encryption's bounty. ” That, from same clown court that just allowed gummint to install electronic tracking devices on peep's cars - without a warrant!  Ay Carumba.     The Deja Donk Part Mockery and Fear Greet Encryption Plan     NY Times / CyberTimes     September 12,1997 By PETER WAYNER     The members of the House Select Committee on Intelligence who voted on Thursday to push for strict controls on    encryption software must have expected to be hated on the Internet, but they probably didn't plan on getting laughed at. Online Groups Mount an Effort To Fight Clinton on Encryption     NY Times     Sept. 21, 1997 By JERI CLAUSING     "Stop the government from building Big Brother into the Internet," states an alert that went out on Thursday to more than     200,000 people on the Internet, urging them to call members of the House Commerce Committee.     "In 1948, George Orwell described a future world in which Big Brother peaked over the shoulder of every citizen -- watching     every move and listening to every word," the alert states. "Now, in 1997, the FBI is pushing the United States Congress to     pass legislation which would make George Orwell's frightening vision a reality." Decoding Provision Defeated     Washington Post     Thursday, September 25, 1997 By Rajiv Chandrasekaran     A House committee yesterday rejected an FBI-backed proposal that would have required data-scrambling software sold in     the United States to have decoding features for law enforcement authorities. The vote was a crucial victory for the computer industry. Sage Advise From A Tech Manual     Pretty Good(tm) Privacy Manual     5/18/98 by Philip Zimmermann     It's personal. It's private. And it's no one's business but yours. You may be planning a political campaign, discussing your taxes, or having an illicit affair. Or you may be doing something that you feel shouldn't be illegal, but is. Whatever it is, you don't want your private electronic mail (E-mail) or confidential documents read by anyone else. There's nothing wrong with asserting your privacy. Privacy is as apple-pie as the Constitution. FBI, Industry Execs Will Discuss Encryption     TechWeb News     June 5, 1998 Rutrell Yasin, InternetWeek     The encryption debate will continue next week as FBI director Louis Freeh meets with the nation's top computer executives     in Washington, D.C., to discuss differences over domestic use of the technology...."The FBI wants access to plain text data, and they want it on their own terms," Harter said. Sometimes the agency may need to access data in a surreptitious way; how it does that is at the center of the debate, Harter added. U.S. ENCRYPTION POLICY DIFFICULT TO DECODE     The Seattle Times     April 21, 1998, Tuesday Final Edition LISA S. DEAN       FROM the very beginning of President Clinton's first term, the American people have been hearing about the term "encryption." The administration's actions to stifle encryption development has created a debate over individual privacy and  America's rights under the Constitution. First there was the Clipper Chip, which would have given the federal government, through a "key recovery system," the ability to snoop into every American's computer, including e-mail, fax data and personal information. It would even give law  enforcement at every level the ability to listen in on private telephone conversations. New World Order Assault On Privacy     MSNBC     Steve Brinich    12/30/98