24 March 1999
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 15:59:23 -0500 To: John Young <jya@pipeline.com> From: Alan Davidson <abd@CDT.ORG> Subject: Crypto Legislation Passes House Judiciary Committee CDT's statement on today's Hill crypto action. ---------------- The Security and Freedom through Encryption (SAFE) Act (H.R. 850) passed the House Judiciary Committee today by voice vote without amendment. In a small but significant victory for privacy online, a controversial amendment that mandated plaintext access as a condition for export was blocked by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) on jurisdictional grounds. The amendment, proposed by Rep. McCollum (R-Fl), would have placed serious limitations on SAFE's liberalization of encryption export controls by requiring "immediate access to plaintext." Rep. Lofgren (D-CA), a co-author of the bill, compared the amendment to the Administration's failed "Clipper Chip." CDT staff counsel Alan Davidson equated the provisions for plaintext access with "playing the 'name game'. Whether these features are called 'key escrow', 'key recovery' or 'plaintext access', they still introduce serious security risks for the end-user." CDT believes that measures for mandatory plaintext access infringe upon both Fourth Amendment privacy protections and Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. Although SAFE passed through the Judiciary Committee with relative ease, stiffer resistance is expected as the bill is considered by other Committees. The bill moves next to the International Relations Committee, where an intense debate on the foreign availability of encryption products is expected. * Background materials on the SAFE bill: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/legis_106/SAFE/ * Proposed McCollum Amendment: http://www.cdt/org/legislation/106th/encryption/McCollum.html * CDT's testimony in support of SAFE: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/alantestimony.shtml Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel 202.637.9800 (v) Center for Democracy and Technology 202.637.0968 (f) 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100 <abd@cdt.org> Washington, DC 20006 PGP key via finger