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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release July 17, 2000

ASSURING SECURITY AND TRUST IN CYBERSPACE

White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, in a speech today at the National Press Club, proposed important new measures to assure the security and trust of Americans in cyberspace. His speech emphasized the themes of updating law enforcement authorities for the Internet age, harmonizing the rules that apply to different technologies such as telephones and e-mail, and balancing important values. He proposed legislation that would give law enforcement important new tools to pursue criminals through cyberspace while also boosting citizens' fundamental rights to privacy in the electronic age. Mr. Podesta also announced new rules that will update encryption export controls.

A FRAMEWORK FOR SECURITY AND TRUST IN CYBERSPACE

UPDATING TELEPHONE-ERA LAWS FOR THE INTERNET AGE

In certain specific instances, laws written for the telephone era will need to be updated for the Internet age. Key provisions of the legislation:

UPDATING ENCRYPTION EXPORT POLICY

Today, the Administration is updating its policy for encryption exports to the European Union and other key trading partners to assure continued competitiveness of U.S. industry in international markets.

--License exception. Under the new policy, U.S. companies can export under license exception (i.e., without a license) any encryption product to any end user in the 15 nations of the European Union as well as Australia, Norway, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Japan, New Zealand and Switzerland. Previous distinctions between government and non-government end users are removed for these countries. Further, U.S. exporters will be permitted to ship their products to these nations immediately after submitting a commodity classification request to the Department of Commerce, instead of waiting for a completed technical review or incurring a 30-day delay.

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