The term "Clipper chip" currently refers to the U.S. government's policy on security and encryption, but in the past it had a narrower meaning. You can learn about the original meaning of Clipper chip and about the cryptography policy debate in the interview "Cryptography Renegades: On Big Brother" from ZDTV at www.zdnet.com/products/content/
articles/199801/crypto.renegade/4.html. The ACLU's March 1998 special report Big Brother in the Wires: Wiretapping in the Digital Age at www.aclu.org/issues/cyber/wiretap_brother.html provides a complete summary of the current state of the encryption policy debate. In January 1998 the U.S. Senate held hearings on threats to national security. Louis J. Freeh, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, made a statement before Congress that best expresses the administration's current position on encryption. You can read the text of Freeh's statement, along with other material on encryption, at www.fbi.gov/library/encrypt/encrypt.htm (formerly www.fbi.gov/congress/threats/threats.htm). The New York Times has an excellent collection of news articles and a discussion forum on encryption at www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/index-encrypt.html (formerly www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/ week/encrypt-index.html). You can find an online course on encryption and the Clipper chip at www2.ncsu.edu:8010/eos/info/computer_ethics/; click "Encryption" in the "Privacy" section of the map. The Americans for Computer Privacy site at www.computerprivacy.org can help you keep current with the encryption debate.