Invasion of Privacy?
The Associated Press
Feds Want Police to Have Authority to Search PCs
W A S H I N G T O N, Aug. 20 — The Clinton administration
reportedly plans to ask Congress to give police authority to
secretly go into people's personal computers and crack their
security codes.
Legislation drafted by the Justice Department would let investigators
get a sealed warrant from a judge to enter private property, search through
computers for passwords and override encryption programs, The
Washington Post reported today.
The newspaper quoted an Aug. 4 department memo that said
encryption software for scrambling computer files “is increasingly used as
a means to facilitate criminal activity, such as drug trafficking, terrorism,
white-collar crime and the distribution of child pornography.”
Privacy Advocates Object
Under the measure, investigators would obtain sealed search warrants
signed by a judge as a prelude to getting further court permission to
wiretap, extract information from computers or conduct further searches.
Privacy advocates have objected to the plan, dubbed the Cyberspace
Electronic Security Act by the Justice Department.
“They have taken the cyberspace issues and are using it as justification
for invading the home,” James Dempsey, an attorney for the Center for
Democracy and Technology, told the Post.
In Through the ‘Back Door'
Peter Swire, the White House's chief counselor for privacy, told the
newspaper the administration supports encryption as a way to provide
privacy for computer users.
“But it has to be implemented in a way that's consistent with other
values, such as law enforcement,” Swire said. “In this whole issue we
have to strike the right balance.”
The administration has for years been seeking a law to require
computer makers to include a so-called Clipper Chip in their products that
would give police a “back door” into computers despite any encryption
software they may contain.
In a backlash, more than 250 members of Congress have signed on as
co-sponsors to legislation that would prohibit mandating such back-door
devices on computers.
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