The proposal, which has circulated privately among members of Congress,represents the administration's third attempt to implement a "key escrow"system that would enable the government to unlock encrypted software forintelligence purposes. As it stands, high-powered software encryption isclassified as munitions and is illegal to export, but bills in both theHouse and Senate aim to overturn suchlimitations.
According to a draft obtained by CNET, the White House is proposing to goahead and relax export restrictions before the bills are passed, but onlyunder these conditions:
--that the government be allowed to set up a "key escrow" system that willhold decryption keys in escrow by third-party clearinghouses. Theclearinghouses could only be set up in countries, however, with which theU.S. has established government-to-government agreements to monitor the useof encryption technology, meaning that technology legal to export toGermany, for example, may not be legal to export to Uganda.
--that the government be allowed to conduct reviews of all proposals toexport hardware or softwarethat requires the use of such third-party clearinghouses.
--that the government be allowed to determine case by case if exports are"consistent with U.S. interests."
Washington observers caution that the proposal is a work in progress. "Wedon't have a reaction yet. It's still in the discussion phase," said aspokesman for Senator PatrickLeahy (D-Vermont), a leading congressional authority on Internettechnology.
But some members of Congress believe that the vaguely worded proposal doesnot offer a compromise on export controls at all.
"We understand that the administration has developed a key escrowencryption proposal and is not at this time willing to ease exportrestrictions on encryption programs and products which are widely availablefrom domestic and foreign companies and the Internet," reads a letteraddressed to the President from a bipartisan group of representatives,including Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), the main sponsor of the Security andFreedom Through Encryption Act (SAFE).
Others feel that the language proposing the easing of export controls istoo vague and that it would sacrifice too much control to the Clinton WhiteHouse for a technology critical to the future growth of electronic commerce."This is an administrative 'solution' and as such it can changeas capriciously as it was enacted," said Matt Raymond, spokesman for Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana),sponsor of the Pro-CODE bill currently in the Senate. "It makes sense that[the Administration] wouldn't want to nail itself down on easing theexport restrictions, since the restrictions are the last weapon they havein the battle over encryption."
The key escrow system proposed by the White House, which would give thegovernment access to the decryption keys only with court permission incases of suspected organized crime and terrorism, has been stronglydenounced by privacy advocates as well.
"This proposal puts the government right in the middle" of setting upencryption verification, said a representative of one such advocacy groupwho requested anonymity."The price is giving them the private key."
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