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The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 16
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A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 16 May 7, 1996
CONTENTS: (1) Senator Burns Goes Online to Discuss Privacy and
Security on the Net - Transcript Available
(2) Excerpts from the Online Town Meeting
(3) Schedule of future events - Senator Burns at HotWired 5/13
(4) Subscription Information
(5) About CDT, contacting us
** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner in tact **
Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of
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(1) SENATOR BURNS GOES ONLINE TO DISCUSS PRIVACY AND SECURITY ON THE NET
Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) joined Netizens in an online town meeting last
night (Monday 5/6) to discuss the recently introduced Promotion of Commerce
Online in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act of 1996 (S. 1726). Senator Burns
also discussed the importance of his bill to the future of privacy and
security on the Internet and the need to encourage the widespread
availability of strong, easy-to-use encryption technologies.
Excerpts of the 50 minute discussion are printed below. The full transcript
of the event is available at the Encryption Policy Resource Page:
URL: http://www.crypto.com/
By bringing together a United States Senator and interested Internet users
in a discussion of an important Internet policy issue, last night's event
illustrates the value of the Net in the political process and the growing
importance of the net.community as a political constituency. Several more
similar events are planned for the coming weeks (see scheduling information
below).
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(2) EXCERPTS FROM MONDAY NIGHT'S TOWN MEETING
The entire transcript is available at http://www.crypto.com/
Question : Senator Burns, As a small business in Montana that
provides web-space to local Montana
businesses, I'm concerned that the lack of privacy
and security on the Net will keep many of my
potential customers from purchasing online. How will
this bill help?
Sen Burns : That's exactly why I introduced this bill. Right now
I don't think any of us feel safe ...
transmitting our credit card numbers over the
Internet, and many companies ...
who have workers around the nation or world are
worried about how they can safely send ...
sensitive information back and forth between them. If
we can raise their level ...
of security, we can guarantee that that information
will be sent without unwanted eyes ...
looking in.
Question : How will these new crypto bills (PRO-CODE, S.1587, HR
3011) affect the administration's
concerns in the areas of counter terrorism, counter
narcotics, etc? (Columbia, MD)
Sen Burns : Well, the point is that these terrorists already have
access to strong encryption ...
from other companies around the world. I mean, my
heavens, you can download it ...
right over the Internet now. I expect we will have
conversations with the FBI, with NSA ..
to address their concerns. But this technology is
like a lot of other things out there ...
It can be used for good purposes, but it also can be
misused. I don't think we want to ...
ban kitchen knives just because a few evil-doers out
there are misusing them.
Question : What do you think the Administration, FBI, and NSA reaction
to your bill will be? Have you already heard from them?
(I run an ISP in Missoula, Montana.)
Sen Burns : We expect them to have some concern with this, and we will
work with them but we have to understand that the people we
are concerned with can already gain encryption that is
already longer than 40 bits on the international market.
The transcript is the property of America Online, who retains the copyright.
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(3) SCHEDULE OF FUTURE EVENTS
Senator Conrad Burns - Monday May 13, 9:00pm ET at HotWired's Club Wired
* Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) will hold a second 'town meeting' to
discuss his recent legislation to encourage the widespread
availability of strong, easy-to-use, privacy and security
technologies for the Net.
HotWired (http://www.hotwired.com) is a free service open to all Internet
users. Please visit HotWired's web site for more information.
Senator Patrick Leahy - DATES TBA, Expected the week of May 20
* Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), co-sponsor of the Pro-CODE bill, the
first (and only) member of Congress to use PGP, ardent opponent of
the CDA and the most vocal defender of Internet freedom in
Congress.
Senator Leahy plans to conduct 'town meetings' on America Online and
HotWired during the week of May 20. An announcement will be posted as soon
as the dates are confirmed. Please check http://www.crypto.com/ and
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ for schedule information.
Monday night's event was the first in a series of discussions with the
sponsors of the Pro-CODE proposal, and is part of a larger effort,
coordinated by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Voters
Telecommunications Watch (VTW), designed to bring the Internet Community
into the debate and encourage members of Congress to work with the
Net.community on vital Internet policy issues.
Events with other members of Congress working on Internet Policy Issues are
currently being planned. Stay tuned for future announcements.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE ENCRYPTION POLICY DEBATE
For more information on the Encryption Policy Debate, please visit CDT's
encryption policy issues page at
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/
You can also join CDT, VTW, EFF, EPIC, People for the American Way, Wired
Magazine, and others in an online campaign to promote secure communications
online. For more information, visit:
* The Encryption Policy Resource Page -- http://www.crypto.com/
* The Internet Privacy Coalition Page -- http://www.privacy.org/ipc
* EFF's Crypto Page -- http://www.eff.org/
* EPIC's Crypto Page -- http://www.epic.org/crypto
* VTW's Crypto Page -- http://www.vtw.org/
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(4) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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(5) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications
technologies.
Contacting us:
General information: info@cdt.org
World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/
FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/
Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006
(v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968
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End Policy Post 2.16 5/7/96
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