Effort to Control Computer Data Encoding Ended

The Clinton Administration retreated Wednesday from its efforts to control the method of scrambling private communications on the information superhighway when it said the federal standard will apply only to telephone conversations, not to computer exchanges.

The announcement is a significant victory for the U.S. computer software industry. It has said an electronic device called the Clipper Chip--the name for the government’s method of maintaining its ability to eavesdrop--endangers privacy and damages U.S. exports.

Vice President Al Gore announced the new government position in a letter to Rep. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), a Clipper opponent who represents the district that is home to software giant Microsoft Corp.

“Clipper is dead,” said Jerry Berman, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a high-technology policy and advocacy group. He called Gore’s announcement a “big step, both for privacy and security.”

Gore’s letter outlines a framework for future negotiations on the complex subject of how to secure data transmissions and guarantee government access to them. Gore said the new encoding standard “would be voluntary and would be exportable.”