Clipper Petition Delivered to White House

[CPSR National Office <cpsr@cpsr.org>]

                          CPSR PRESS RELEASE
             Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
                             P.O. Box 717
                         Palo Alto, CA 94301
                           415-322-3778 (voice)
                           415-322-4748 (fax)
                             cpsr@cpsr.org


              "CLIPPER" PETITION DELIVERED TO WHITE HOUSE

         COMPUTER USERS CALL ON ADMINISTRATION TO DROP ENCODING PLAN

                     NEW PRIVACY CENTER ESTABLISHED

	Washington, DC -- A national public interest organization today 
delivered to the White House a petition asking for withdrawal of the 
controversial Clipper cryptography proposal.  The Clipper plan would provide 
government agents with copies of the keys used to encoded electronic 
messages. 

	The petition was signed by more than 47,000 users of the nation's 
data highway.  The petition drive occurred entirely across the Internet.  It 
is the largest electronic petition to date.

	Earlier this year, the White House announced support for the Clipper 
proposal.  But the plan has received almost unanimous criticism from the 
public.  A Time/CNN found that 80% of the American public opposed Clipper.

	Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility began the petition 
drive in January.  In the letter addressed to the President, the organization 
said that if Clipper goes forward, "privacy protection will be diminished, 
innovation will be slowed, government accountability will be lessened, and 
the openness necessary to ensure the successful development of the nation's 
communications infrastructure will be threatened."

	The petition asks for the withdrawal of Clipper.  It is signed by 
many of the nation's leading cryptographers including Whitfield Diffie, 
Martin Hellman, and Ronald Rivest.  Users from nearly 3,000  different sites 
across the Internet are represented.  Responses came from more than 1300 
companies including Microsoft, IBM, Apple, DEC, GE, Cray, Tandem, Sun, SGI, 
Mead Data Central, AT&T, and Stratus. Signatures also came from more than 850 
colleges and universities and 150 non-profit organizations. Many responses 
came from public networks such as  America Online and Compuserve. Nearly a 
thousand came from government and military sites including NASA, the Army and 
the Navy.

	Next week hearings will be held in Congress on the controversial 
cryptography proposal, an initiative developed by the FBI and the National 
Security Agency.  Most of the witnesses are expected to testify against the 
plan.

	In a related development, the establishment of the Electronic Privacy 
Information Center was announced today.  EPIC is jointly sponsored by CPSR 
and the Fund for Constitutional Government. It will focus on emerging privacy 
issues surrounding the information data highway.  [see accompanying release].

	CPSR is national membership organization, based in Palo Alto, 
California.  For more information about CPSR, contact CPSR, P.O. Box 717, 
Palo Alto, CA 94302.  415 322 3778 (tel) 415 322 4748 (fax) cpsr@cpsr.org 
(email).