FC: Reno releases unlawful conduct report; response from Armey

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Janet Reno released the report today. With her were Commerce's Daley and 
also a representative from AOL who applauded it, saying he was also 
speaking for the Internet Alliance and the Information Technology 
Association of America.

I'm about to tape CNN and then speak in Virginia, so I won't send out my 
article immediately, but you should be able to find it at wired.com soon.

The DoJ told me they won't have it online until tomorrow, so you might as 
well get it here (nearly 7,000 downloads so far):
  http://www.politechbot.com/docs/unlawfulconduct.html

Background:
  http://www.politechbot.com/p-00983.html
  http://www.politechbot.com/p-00975.html

-Declan

************

I thought you might be interested in Mr. Armey's response to the working
group report unveiled by Attorney General Reno earlier this morning.

Make up your mind, Mr. President

House Majority Leader Dick Armey questioned the seemingly contradictory
positions coming out of the Administration regarding the importance of
Internet privacy in light of today's report issued by the President's
Working Group on Unlawful Conduct on the Internet.

"The Administration is full of double-talk on Internet Privacy," said Armey.
"While the president lectures the IT industry about the importance of
privacy to consumers, his Administration wants to let Big Brother track our
every move on the web."

President Clinton made statements in the Silicon Valley about the importance
of Internet privacy just last Saturday.  "[Online privacy] is a big deal to
people," the president said. "Ordinary folks, even people who aren't online
yet, are very excited about the prospects of this age so many of you have
done so much to create. But they are really concerned about this. They are
afraid they will have no place to hide." (San Jose Mercury News, 3/4/2000.)

Yet the Administration's Working Group on Unlawful Conduct on the Internet
issued a report today apparently recommending a tracking system that would
deny individuals the freedom to go to a library or Internet cafe to surf the
web or send a message anonymously.

"After waffling on encryption for years, it is hard to tell where the
president really stands on letting individuals protect their own privacy on
the Internet," said Armey. "Many Americans value the anonymity the Internet
offers to guard their personal privacy."

"The president should take this opportunity to reject any proposal that
reduces the confidence Americans place in the privacy of their online
communications," said Armey.

# # #

Additional details are available at www.freedom.gov

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