[FYI] (Fwd) Clinton signs bill to count wiretaps that encounter encr

["Axel H Horns" <horns@t-online.de>]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Thu, 04 May 2000 08:07:02 -0500
To:             	cryptography@c2.net
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	Clinton signs bill to count wiretaps that encounter encryption


******
Wiretap stats from 1999:
  http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap99/contents.html
Clinton statement:
  http://www.politechbot.com/docs/clinton-crypto.050300.html
******

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36067,00.html
    U.S. to Track Crypto Trails
    by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)

    3:00 a.m. May. 4, 2000 PDT
    WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has authorized the federal
    government to begin keeping track of how often suspected criminals
    use encryption to thwart police wiretaps.

    Clinton has signed a bill that requires the Justice Department to
    report how frequently it encounters encrypted conversations. Over
    2,450,000 telephone conversations were legally intercepted in
    1999, according to government statistics released this week.

    The president signed the measure Tuesday and said it would require
    only summary statistics. "The reporting requirement ... does not
    require specific case-by-case or order-by-order reporting, which
    could jeopardize law enforcement sources and methods and provide
    clear direction to criminals seeking to use encryption to hide
    their unlawful conduct," he said in a statement.

    Depending on how widespread encryption has become, the results of
    the annual survey could help the arguments of privacy advocates,
    who say police fears are exaggerated, or boost the claims of law
    enforcement officials, who have pressed for limits on
    data-scrambling products.

    [...]


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