I remember the pushback in the 90s against the Clipper chip. PGP was one of the responses to the NSA's overreach. I think it's hard to find people who cares abo

I remember the pushback in the 90s against the Clipper chip. PGP was one of the responses to the NSA's overreach. I think it's hard to find people who cares about this today because there appears to be both a general lack of historical literacy combined with the fact that a lot of people are just grinding to stay alive right now. "The government knows what a pivotal role cryptography is destined to play in the power relationship with its people. In April 1993, the Clinton administration unveiled a bold new encryption policy initiative, which had been under development at the National Security Agency (NSA) since the start of the Bush administration. The centerpiece of this initiative was a government-built encryption device, called the Clipper chip, containing a new classified NSA encryption algorithm. The government tried to encourage private industry to design it into all their secure communication products, such as secure phones, secure faxes, and so on. AT&T put Clipper into its secure voice products. The catch: At the time of manufacture, each Clipper chip is loaded with its own unique key, and the government gets to keep a copy, placed in escrow. Not to worry, though–the government promises that they will use these keys to read your traffic only "when duly authorized by law." Of course, to make Clipper completely effective, the next logical step would be to outlaw other forms of cryptography." -Phil Zimmerman, Why I Wrote PGP [0] [0] https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/index.html https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/index.html