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EPIC Alert 1.05 [1994] EPICAlert 5

EPIC ALERT



Volume 1.05 July 28, 1994

Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Washington, DC (Alertepic.org)

Table of Contents


[1] New Digital Telephony Draft Released
[2] National ID Card Returns?

[3] Clipper Watch
[4] New Files in the Archive
[5] Upcoming Conferences and Events

[1] New Draft of Digital Telephony Proposal Released

EPIC has obtained a copy of a new draft of the FBI's Digital Telephonyproposal. The new draft is dated July 19 and contains some significantchanges over earlier drafts released in March. The draft was writtenby staff members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees and is
the result of negotiations between telephone companies and the FBI.

The first major change over earlier drafts is its expanded scope. Thebill now covers "telecommunications carriers," which is defined as "anyperson or entity engaged in the transmission or switching of wire orelectronic communications for value for unaffiliated persons, but doesnot include persons or entities engaged in providing informationservices." This would appear to be far broader than an earlier draftwhich covered only common carriers. This bill would cover everythingfrom small BBSs that charge fees to large on-line services like AOLand Prodigy. The following requirement would apply:

Every carrier must ensure that its equipment allows for interception of a communication concurrent with a transmission and provide call
identifying information to a remote government facility. Manufacturers and support service providers must also assist by developing equipment and software with these capabilities. Providers have four years after enactment to comply.

Under the draft, the Attorney General would also provide carriers withwritten notice of needed capacity for electronic surveillance. Serviceproviders must ensure that they have the required capability within fouryears or else face civil fines.

Carriers are not obligated to decrypt communications that areencrypted by the subscriber unless the carrier provided the encryptionand has the key to decrypt the message.

The draft authorizes the Attorney General and other law enforcementagencies to meet with industry associations and standards settingsbodies to develop standards for surveillance capabilities. If there isa dispute over standards, or the bodies fail to issue standards, anyperson can petition the FCC to establish standards. The FCC can imposefees for conducting such rulemaking.

Under the draft, a court could order a manufacturer or support serviceprovider to re-design a carrier's equipment to ensure the carrier'scompliance with the requirements of the bill. The Attorney Generalcould also petition the court to order the carrier, manufacturer andsupport service provider to comply with the requirements. The courtcould impose civil fines of up to $10,000 per day for non-compliance.

To pay for the mandated re-designs, the draft bill authorizes
$500,000,000 for fiscal years 1995 through 1998. After 1999, "sums asmay be necessary to carry out the purposes" are authorized.

Negotiations are continuing between the FBI, industry and Congressionalstaff over the text of the bill.


[2] National ID Card Idea Resurfaces

On July 12, CBS Evening News reported that the National Commissionon Immigration Reform, a bipartisan group formed by the 1990
Immigration Reform Act, was planning to recommend a national identitycard for all persons in the United States for the purpose of verifyingemployment eligibility and facilitating transactions with governmentagencies.

CBS reported that each card will contain a name, photo, fingerprints,
magnetic stripe with info and a "verified SSN." The network reportedthat the program would be implemented by age group over a number ofyears.

The proposal was reportedly supported by Senator Alan Simpson ofWyoming, a long-time supporter of ID cards. California Gov. Pete Wilson
has offered to make California a test-bed for the proposal. The proposalwas opposed by Xavier Beccera, a Congressman from California, whoexpressed concern over cost and privacy issues. The Secret Service hastestified that a secure card system could be developed for anestimated $2 - 4 billion but cautioned that within a few months, forgedcards would be available.

The day after the CBS report, the Commission issued a press releasestating that it was still in the process of completing a draft reportwhich is due on September 30. The release stated that the commission
"has not proposed a national identity card. Citizens will not be requiredto carry a photo ID with fingerprints to prove that they are legally inthe United States, despite media reports." The Commission said it would
investigate a "simple, fraud resistant way of verifying authorization
to work, building on information the government already maintains...."

Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan will testify before the SenateJudiciary Committee on August 3, 1994 regarding the preliminaryrecommendations of the Commission on Immigration Reform for a"Workplace Eligibility Card." Expect heated debate about the use ofthe card as a national identifier, and also questions about the use ofthe Social Security Number and linkages to the Social SecurityAdministration databases.

There have been several attempts in the past 20 years to implementID cards. Congress rejected proposals in 1986 and 1990 by Sen. Simpsonto require identity cards for employment. Martin Anderson, a formeraide to President Reagan also reported that Reagan rejected an IDcard in 1981.

EPIC is working with Privacy International and several domestic groupsto investigate this issue. PI has led successful campaigns againstnational ID cards in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.


[3] Clipper Watch

A letter from Vice President Gore to Rep. Maria Cantwell last weekprompted some reports that the Clipper Chip is dead. Here is what oneleading proponent of Clipper and one leading opponent of Clipper had tosay about the reported demise of the NSA-developed standard:

"We are working with industry to develop the same capability
for data networks that Clipper provides for voice networks.
I would hardly call that backing away."

- Attorney General Janet Reno, press conference, July 22, 1994

"The letter makes clear to me that the Administration continues to
embrace key escrow encryption technology, and stands behind Clipper
Chip as a federal standard for telephone communications. The official
standard makes clear that this standard applies to any communications
over telephone lines. Those communications include not only voice,
but also low-speed computer data and facsimile messages.

- Senator Patrick Leahy, press statement, July 21, 1994


[4] New Files at the Archive

Index of Privacy Journal Articles, 1984 - 1993.
/privacy/misc_privacy/privacy_journal_index.txt

CPSR/Seattle Information Policy Fact Sheets
/cpsr/chapters/seattle
Caller-ID.fact - Fact Sheet on Caller ID Clipper.fact - Fact Sheet on Clipper General.fact - Fact Sheet on information privacy K-12.fact - Fact Sheet on education privacy SCN-FAQ - Seattle Community Network FAQ SCN-policy - Seattle Community Network policies SSN.fact - Seattle Community Network factsheet
The CPSR Internet Library is a free service available viaFTP/WAIS/Gopher/listserv from cpsr.org:/cpsr. Materials fromPrivacy International, the Taxpayers Assets Project and theCypherpunks are also archived. For more information, contactftp-admincpsr.org.


[5] Upcoming Privacy Related Conferences and Events

Information Security Committee, EDI/IT Committee, Aug 1-3, 1994.
Quebec City, Canada. Sponsored by: Section of Science and Technology,
American Bar Association. Contact: baumim.com.

Hackers on Planet Earth: The First US Hacker Congress. HotelPennsylvania, New York City, NY. Aug 13-14. Sponsored by 2600Magazine. Contact: 2600well.sf.ca.us.

ONE BBS, Atlanta, GA. Aug 17-21. For further info, contact Peg
Coniglio at 303-693-5253.

ASAP 1994 Symposium "Impact of Technology and Privacy Act". Holiday,
Inn, Rockville, MD, Aug 30-Sept 1. Contact: ASAP 301-913-0030
16th International Conference on Data Protection. The Hague,
Netherlands. September 6-8. Contact: B. Crouwers 31 70 3190190(tel), 31-70-3940460 (fax).

Technologies of Surveillance; Technologies of Privacy. The Hague, TheNetherlands. September 9. Sponsored by Privacy International and EPIC.
Contact: Simon Davies (daviesprivint.demon.co.uk).

Legal and Business Aspects of the Internet and Online Services"
New York City, September 29 and 30, 1994. Sponsored by thepublisher of the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal.
Contact 800-888-8300, ext. 6111, or 212-545-6111.

National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists "Legal, Ethical and
Technological Aspects of Computer and Network Use and Abuse" Maryland,
October 7-9. Contact: drunkleaaas.org.

CPSR Annual Meeting. University of California, San Diego. October 8-9.
Contact: Phil Agre .

Symposium: An Arts and Humanities Policy for the National InformationInfrastructure. Boston, Mass. October 14-16. Sponsored by the Centerfor Art Research in Boston. Contact: Jay Jaroslav(jaroslavartdata.win.net).

Third Biannual Conference on Participatory Design, Chapel Hill, NorthCarolina. October 27-28. Sponsored by CPSR. Contact:
triggparc.xerox.com.

2nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Fairfax,
Virginia. Nov 2-4, 1994. Sponsored by: ACM SIGSAC, Hosted by: Bell
Atlantic, George Mason University. Contact: gongcsl.sri.com
Ethics in the Computer Age Conference. Gatlinburg, Tennessee. November11-13. Sponsored by ACM. Contact: jkizzautcvm.utc.edu
The Technology for Information Security Conference '94 (TISC '94).
Galveston, Texas. Dec. 5-8, sponsored by: NASA Johnson Space Center
Mission Operations Directorate (MOD), MOD AIS Security Engineering
Team, and the ISSA. Contact: John D'Agostino
(dagostinkillerbee.jsc.nasa.gov).

Second International Conference on Information Warfare: "Chaos on the
Electronic Superhighway" Jan 18-19, Montreal, CA. January 18, 1995,
Sponsored by NCSA. Contact: Mich Kabay (75300.3232compuserve.com).

(Send calendar submissions to Alertepic.org)


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The Electronic Privacy Information Center is a public interestresearch center in Washington, DC. It was established in 1994 tofocus public attention on emerging privacy issues relating to theNational Information Infrastructure, such as the Clipper Chip, theDigital Telephony proposal, medical record privacy, and the sale ofconsumer data. EPIC is sponsored by the Fund for ConstitutionalGovernment and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. EPICpublishes the EPIC Alert and EPIC Reports, pursues Freedom ofInformation Act litigation, and conducts policy research on emergingprivacy issues. For more information email infoepic.org, or writeEPIC, 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20003. +1202 544 9240 (tel), +1 202 547 5482 (fax).

The Fund for Constitutional Government is a non-profit organizationestablished in 1974 to protect civil liberties and constitutionalrights. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a nationalmembership organization of people concerned about the impact oftechnology on society. For information contact: cpsr-infocpsr.org
END EPIC Alert 1.05

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