The Despised Clipper Chip

Johansson, Sarah. “Big Brother’s New Hearing Aids”. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; May/June 1994, p4-6. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 14 April, 2011.

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Sarah Johansson clearly wrote this article to stir up disapproving thoughts about the “clipper chip”. In late spring of 1994, the Clinton Administration had just approved legislation that would require manufacturers to install a clipper chip into any and every device used for communication. Johansson wrote this article in response to this event, and she expresses her disgust quite openly. She explains that this chip will encrypt all communications in the manner that only the people intended to understand the message will understand it. However, it also allows government officials to understand all of this information too. She also lets the audience know that if someone wants their information encrypted in way that the government cannot decode, that can still be done legally. Johansson attempts to convince the audience that having this clause in the new policy completely ruins it. The good criminals will still be able to get away with breaking the law, and with not much added difficulty. She stresses into the readers minds that the clipper chip isn’t doing much of anything for protection in the cyber world, yet it is an invasion of privacy and a waste of taxpayers’ dollars.

Johansson’s article addresses an issue that is directly related to the research question at hand. The clipper chip that she explains and shows disgust for helps to protect the privacy of Americans’ communications to a certain extent by encrypting messages into a particular code. However, this code is meant to make the messages only readable to the person it is designed for and anyone who knows how to decrypt the code. Government officials know how to decrypt the code, so the clipper chip is basically handing the government another tool in which they can obtain information, whether we like it or not. The article helps the audience to answer the research question better because it explains how the government gains more access to our online communications by adding protection to the internet. The clipper chip is a perfect example of something that on the surface seems like a good tool to help protect information online, but realistically it is more so a tool developed by the government for the government’s use. In this way, the government gains more access to citizen’s communications by protecting us from cyber threats.