Consumer phone privacy info sheet

Greetings cypherpunks,

I'm preparing this consumer phone privacy info sheet to post to
libernet, misc.consumers, etc.  Any corrections or further information 
greatly appreciated.

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Instead of developing phones allowing truly private conversations, which
are now feasible, AT&T recently put a phone on the market that contains 
the NSA-designed "Clipper" wiretap chip.  All users' encryption keys are 
registered with the U.S. government, giving it exclusive access to 
wiretapping this system's phones.  The use of an unpublished algorithm 
and other features also make the system insecure; see the newsgroups 
sci.crypt and the mailing list "cypherpunks", cypherpunks-request@toad.com 
for details.  

AT&T by this action has demonstrated its contempt for its customers' 
privacy.  Here are some other long-distance providers that may have 
more respect.  All U.S. long-distance companies are required to surrender 
to telephone taps under government "authorization", but some require more 
"authorization" than others, or otherwise make a greater fuss about it.  
Companies which use primarily multichannel fiber optic lines are 
physically more difficult to tap.

Allnet Long Distance Services	1-800-783-2020
MCI, commercial			1-800-888-0800
MCI, residential		1-800-950-5555
Metromedia Communications Corp.	1-800-275-2273
One-2-One Communications	1-800-293-4121
Sprint, residential		1-800-877-7746
Sprint, business		1-800-733-5566

True privacy can be obtained with a veil of encryption, by using
pairs of phones containing privacy chips, which scramble the
signals *and* keep the keys private.  Contact your local business 
telephone dealers for privacy phones from Ericson and other companies.  
Please e-mail me detailed info on these phones, and also further
info on long distance services, and I will post a summary along with my 
own research findings.

Nick Szabo					szabo@techbook.com
Protect your electronic privacy with PGP -- public key available

> Companies which use primarily multichannel fiber optic lines are 
> physically more difficult to tap.

Don't think so.  Unless you have fiber running from your location (your home)
to the calling party's location.

The tap is placed on the subscriber loop - which for the time being is analog
for most voice service.  And even if it is digital, it is still copper from
the CO.

If you are concerned with eavesdropping, then your statement is accurate.
It is very easy to eavesdrop on microwave and satellite long distance.

I suspect the Clipper chip will be used heavily in digital cellular phones,
if it isn't too much of a power hog.

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