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Waving aside concerns about personal privacy, the Clinton administration
has adopted a controversial system for encrypting computer communications
called the Clipper Chip.

The move does not outlaw other encryption systems, but the administration
believes the government’s enormous buying power – along with pressure on
companies that do business with it – will drive other systems out of the
market.

The system has a built-in mechanism that allows government investigators
to secretly decode the chip’s encrypted output. But the administration pledges
that it will ‘listen in’ only when authorised by a judge. Once the Clipper
Chip dominates the market, criminals will have little choice but to use
it. Jim Kallstrom of the FBI in New York says this will give police a vital
edge in combating terrorism, organised crime and drugs trafficking.