Pondering Clipper

Heard enough about Clipper?  

I have been receiving cypherpunk material for about a week now.  I am new
to cryptography, and new to security(feel free to laugh).  I hope this
posting is appropriate.. Well enough excuses for what I am about to say
but I might like Clipper. 

1.) From what I am hearing (largely propaganda from both sides) Clipper
will be OPTIONAL.  If I am businessman X and I dont know squat about
security (but realize it is a good thing) wouldnt I want something I
could feel secure with?  For me, wouldnt Clipper be a good thig?

2) If, for some reason, I wanted to keep something even more secure so
the government couldnt see what I was doing, couldnt I just encrypt a
message before or after it goes through the Clipper Chip?  I would think
this would prevent the government as well as anyone else from reading my
message en route

3) Right now I can pick up cellular phone conversations and intercept data
through any network lines with a datascope. For anyone who doesnt wan
this to occur wouldnt it be nice if they couldat least be reasonably 
certain that no one could understand what they are hearing or seeing? 

4) Also, would it be unreasonable to have an on/off switch on the Clipper
chip? 

	Please dont assume me to be a pro-clipper individual.  I am
merely trying to form a logical, educated opinion on the issue.  I will
always feel skeptical when the FBI say we just need this to maintain our
current state of survellience capability (or is that survellience state
;-) And I am also aware that if anybody thinks these keys will be kept
confidential unless the government has a warrant blah blah blah well I
better stop there.......... 

lake@uenics.evansville.edu
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Not repeating what James Hicks had to say:

| 1.) From what I am hearing (largely propaganda from both sides) Clipper
| will be OPTIONAL.

	While Clipper might start out 'optional' the government
intends to use its massive purchasing power to make it the de facto
standard.  If the government buys 50 or 100K Clipper phones, all of
the sudden, Clipper phones are the standard.  And like DOS, people
will buy it because it is standard and cheap, not because it is
better.

	Also, the development of clipper was done with tax dollars.
The government has no need to recoup its investment in developing the
chip.  Therefore, they can sell the chips at the cost of
manufacturing, and forget the R&D.  That ability to ignore the bottom
line is a pretty powerful mechanism.  If a clipper phone costs $100
less than the alternative, because we the taxpayers already paid for
it, Clipper becomes more and more the only choice.

Adam


	

-- 
Adam Shostack 				       adam@bwh.harvard.edu

Politics.  From the greek "poly," meaning many, and ticks, a small,
annoying bloodsucker.

Have you signed the anti-Clipper petition?