Recently, the US government has called for legislation to implement the "Clipper Chip." This microchip was developed by the National Security Agency the intelligence service responsible for signals intelligence and code breaking. The Clipper Chip has a back door (a special programming instruction) through which government agencies can decode encrypted messages sent via computer and other types of telecommunications.

Today, if a private citizen wants to send a message via electronic mail and be assured it will not fall into unauthorized hands, he can encode it using commercially available encrypting programs for personal computers. The message can then be sent over the phone lines as a data stream. The recipient, who has the decryption program on their computer can download the message and decode it.

The Clipper Chip would have a built-in encryption program. This contains a mathematical algorithm that scrambles voice and data signals and could be used for lawful encoding and decoding. The message sender and recipient would each have one electronic key, allowing them to communicate in privacy - hence, the alternative term key escrow encryption for the system. Copies of each key would be stored separately by the Treasury Department and National Institute of Standards and Technology In order to get the decoding keys, government agents would have to show each of these agencies a court order. The keys would be released to them, and surveillance initiated.

While implementation would not be mandatory the government would require any businesses that dealt with federal agencies to implant the Clipper Chip into its equipment. Eventually the government hopes, the Clipper Chip would become the standardized encryption device nationwide.

The government claims the Clipper Chip is necessary to fight terrorists. Supposedly there would be safeguards built into the system to prevent abuse by corrupt or politically motivated government agents.

Related to the Clipper Chip is the Digital Telephony Bill. This would require telecommunications service providers to design their equipment to allow government agents to wiretap any telephone conversation. The bill supposedly originated at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The way Digital Telephony would work is that a government agency would provide a telecommunications company with a court order requiring them to provide the agency with access to private communications. The surveillance could be conducted from either the company's or the agency's offices. The bill appropriates S500 million dollars to reimburse telecommunications companies for their expenses in installing this technology.

What is interesting about both the Clipper Chip and the Digital Telephony Bill is that neither arose through any popular demand. Both originated in the executive branch of government.

On a more mundane plane, the Secret Service launched Operation Sun Devil back in 1990. This involved numerous raids against alleged computer backers.

One aspect of Sun Devil was the operation against Steve Jackson Games on 1 March, 1990. In this raid, conducted under a sealed warrant, Secret Service agents walked off with many of Jackson's computers. Steve Jackson brought the government to court, and in 1993 a federal judge ruled the raid illegal. The Secret Service was reprimanded for its irresponsible behavior and the government ordered to pay damages. The raid raises serious Constitutional issues. If government agents can confiscate a publishing company's computers, then they can effectively abridge their exercise of free speech and press.

Operation Sun Devil led to the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation to safeguard computer user's rights. The pattern is straight out of insurgency handbooks - illegal government actions leading to popular resistance.