IP: Snips from -- EFFector Online 09.13

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

* "Clipper III" On the Move


President Clinton is reviewing the latest version of the Administration's
key "escrow" scheme - in which all user's encryption keys would be held 
by third parties for the convenience of police and intelligence agencies -
for approval. The new proposal, dubbed "Clipper III" by its opponents would
raise exportable key length a token amount, while still restricting the 
export of encryption products with any significant privacy protection 
features, and adding the Dept. of Justice to the list of governing bodies 
able to reject export requests. It is expected that the proposal will be 
made public at the Organization fo Economic Cooperation & Development 
(OECD) conference in Paris, Sept. 26-27 (with restricting public access to 
encryption being a hot item on the OECD agenda).


A coalition of online civil liberties organizations, including EFF, EPIC, 
ACLU, Privacy International, and many US local and non-US "Electronic 
Frontiers" organizations, submitted a resolution to the OECD, as a kind 
of pre-emptive strike, urging OECD to base its crypto polices on "the 
fundamental right of citizens to engage in private communication", to 
resist policies that try to set up surveillance networkings, and to pay 
attention to public concerns about privacy and invasion thereof.


Full text of this resolution available at:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Key_escrow/OECD/960925_priv.resolution


The results of a journalist's (anonymized) interviews with OECD delegates 
is available at:
http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Key_escrow/OECD/oecd_paris_cukier_092696.arti
cle


[Source: HotWired, Fight-Censorship Digest, C|Net, etc.]




* TIA Tells FBI "No" on National Cell Phone Surveillance Network


Last week, the Telecommunications Industry Association, a telephony
standards body, rejected FBI demands to essentially turn the national
celluar phone network into a surveillance and tracking system of
unprecendented reach. The plan even included enabling police to track the
location of someone carrying a cell phone that was simply turned on but not
making a call!


EFF joins the Center for Democracy & Technology in condeming the
proposed system as flatly illegal.  The controversial "Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, orginally known as the Digital
Telphony Bill) authorized $500mil. to alter digital telphone technology
to preserve a status quo (namely, law enforcement ability to conduct
court-authorized wiretaps).  The rejected FBI proposal went far beyond
the authority granted by this statute.


TIA's rejection of the demands is certainly a victory for privacy, but
the FBI doesn't stay down for long. Please see the action alert leading 
this issue of EFFector.


* Update on anon.penet.fi


Johan "Julf" Helsingius, operator of the anon.penet.fi pseudonymous 
remailer in Finland, has successfully obtained a temporary injunction 
against a preliminary court ruling that his service had to reveal the 
real user ID of pseudonymous user - a person the Church of Scientology 
wishes to file crimain charges against for intellectual property 
rights infringement.  The temporary injunction may last throughout
Helsingius' appeal of the initial ruling.


Helsingius plans to challenge the court's ruling that email has no 
privacy protection under Finnish law (despite strong privacy 
law in other media), and is negotiating with EFF to set up a legal 
defense fund for this effort.  None to soon: The government of Singapore,
after the Church of Scientology anti-privacy ruling, wants Finnish police 
to seize another Penet user ID - someone accused of making comments 
critical of a Singaporean government official (illegal in that ASEAN nation).


Press release about the injuction available at:
 http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Anonymity/960923_penet_injunction.announce


For more information, see:
 http://www.penet.fi




* Join EFF!


You *know* privacy, freedom of speech and ability to make your voice heard
in government are important. You have probably participated in our online
campaigns and forums.  Have you become a member of EFF yet?  The best way to
protect your online rights is to be fully informed and to make your
opinions heard.  EFF members are informed and are making a difference.  Join
EFF today!


For EFF membership info, send queries to membership () eff org, or send any
message to info () eff org for basic EFF info, and a membership form.