FC: Clinton signs bill to count wiretaps that encounter encryption

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

******
Wiretap stats from 1999:
 http://www.uscourts.gov/wiretap99/contents.html
Clinton statement:
 http://www.politechbot.com/docs/clinton-crypto.050300.html
******

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36067,00.html
   U.S. to Track Crypto Trails
   by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

   3:00 a.m. May. 4, 2000 PDT
   WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has authorized the federal government
   to begin keeping track of how often suspected criminals use encryption
   to thwart police wiretaps.

   Clinton has signed a bill that requires the Justice Department to
   report how frequently it encounters encrypted conversations. Over
   2,450,000 telephone conversations were legally intercepted in 1999,
   according to government statistics released this week.

   The president signed the measure Tuesday and said it would require
   only summary statistics. "The reporting requirement ... does not
   require specific case-by-case or order-by-order reporting, which could
   jeopardize law enforcement sources and methods and provide clear
   direction to criminals seeking to use encryption to hide their
   unlawful conduct," he said in a statement.

   Depending on how widespread encryption has become, the results of the
   annual survey could help the arguments of privacy advocates, who say
   police fears are exaggerated, or boost the claims of law enforcement
   officials, who have pressed for limits on data-scrambling products.

   [...]

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