A. Michael Froomkin
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The Administration is spending large sums of money on a
controversial project in the absence of congressional authorization.
This policy cuts out the legislature, and indeed the public, from the
decision to proceed with EES.{220} Only Congress can intervene, because, as things
currently stand, no one has standing to sue. The Administration's use
of a standard-setting procedure to make substantive policy sets an
alarming precedent of rule making with highly attenuated
accountability.
A. EES: The Un-Rule Rule
[Page 765]
Information Processing
Standards (FIPS) are standards and guidelines intended to improve
the federal government's use and management of computers and
information technology, and to standardize procurement of those
goods.{222} FIPS are
also used to announce national norms in areas of changing
technology where NIST believes industry would benefit from the
existence of a standard. Officially, the only bodies required to
conform to FIPS are agencies within the federal government (and in
some cases government contractors), although in practice they are
often adopted as de facto national standards by industry and the
public.{223} The
private sector finds FIPS attractive because they allow [Page 766]
conformity with, and sales
to, the government, and because the standards themselves often have
technical merit, or at least reflect a technical consensus of the
many public and private interests that NIST routinely consults
before it promulgates a FIPS.{224} EES is FIPS 185.{225}One of the more serious complaints about FIPS 185 is that it fails to set a standard. One member of the NIST Computer Privacy and Security Advisory Board went so far as to submit a comment calling the FIPS "content-free."{226} Most FIPS describe a conforming device or procedure in sufficient detail for the reader to understand what it is; FIPS 185 does not. Instead, it states, "Implementations which are tested and validated by NIST will be considered as complying with this standard."{227} FIPS 185 requires the use of the SKIPJACK encryption algorithm and a LEAF creation method.{228} But the standard does not define those terms because the specifications for both are classified. Instead, FIPS 185 unhelpfully notes:
Organizations holding an appropriate security clearance and entering into a Memorandum of Agreement with the National Security Agency regarding implementation of the standard will be provided access to the classified specifications. Inquiries may be made regarding the Technical Reports and this program to Director, National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade . . . .{229}
[Page 767]
Nor does the standard
explain what sorts of devices it covers. It merely states that
"[v]arious devices implementing this standard are anticipated.
The implementation may vary with the application. The specific
electric, physical and logical interface will vary with the
implementation."{230} Admittedly, FIPS 185 at least has the good
grace to acknowledge that it is "not an interoperability
standard. It does not provide sufficient information to design and
implement a security device or equipment. Other specifications and
standards will be required to assure interoperability of EES
devices in various applications."{231}
In sum, FIPS 185 says something to this effect: "Various
electronic devices will contain classified components that will
provide escrowed encryption using a classified algorithm. If you
ask nicely, we may let you use one in your design, and we will tell
you whether we approve of your device and whether we will let you
produce it." This is a strange sort of standard.
2. An End-Run Around Accountability
Such an unorthodox standard is the result of an even more unorthodox
procedure. FIPS 185 is not just a standardless standard; it is an
un-rule rule which seeks to coerce the public by wielding federal
market power to generate a de facto standard without providing any
real administrative accountability. Despite conforming to the notice
and comment procedure of § 553 of the APA,{232} and being duly
published in the Federal Register,{233} FIPS 185 is not
a legislative rule because it does not seek, at least on its face, to
bind the public.{234} Nor, despite being on its face an [Page 768]
announcement, is FIPS 185 a
nonlegislative rule as the term is usually understood.{235} Familiar types
of nonlegislative rules include interpretative rules, statements of
policy and "publication rulemaking." FIPS 185 fits into none
of these categories.{236} Interpretative rules set forth an agency's
understanding of a statutory provision, a judicial or administrative
decision, or another rule,{237} and FIPS 185 clearly does not provide any of
these. Nor is FIPS 185 an example of what Peter Strauss has called
"publication rulemaking"{238} in which agency staff, acting pursuant to APA
[Page 769]
§ 552(a)(1)-(2),
publish technical guidelines, staff manuals, or standards (such as IRS
Revenue Rulings) that inform the public of the agency's likely
position in future enforcement, application-and-approval, or
benefit/reimbursement cases.{239} Nor is FIPS 185 a statement of policy.{240} Nothing within
the four corners of FIPS 185 establishes or explicates a policy,
unless giving federal agencies the option to purchase certain devices
constitutes a policy.{241}
On its face, FIPS 185 is a minor internal housekeeping
regulation. Whether anyone, inside or outside of the government,
chooses to comply with it is entirely up to her, although FIPS 185
states that use of EES by nonfederal government organizations
"is encouraged."{242} In form, EES is a description of something,
as well as a grant of permission for agencies to use that something
instead of other things they are currently using. Yet despite
explicitly disclaiming any intention of legally binding the public,
FIPS 185 is part of a strategy to coerce the public by use of the
government's market power to create a de facto national standard.
At the same time that the Department of Commerce promulgated EES,
the Department of Justice announced that it was buying 9000
Clipper-equipped telephones, using money from its Asset Forfeiture
Super Surplus Fund,{243}
a fund comprised of profits from RICO, [Page 770]
drug, and other asset
forfeitures.{244}
Expenditures from the Asset Forfeiture Super Surplus Fund require
no congressional appropriations. The effect is to cut Congress out
of the decision-making process on an issue which may eventually
affect the privacy rights of most Americans. One need not be an
opponent of EES to believe that a decision with significant
potential effects on communication privacy should have been left to
the legislature.
The Department of Defense, too, is considering buying millions of EES-compliant devices,{245} although this purchase may require congressional approval. The government's market power as a bulk purchaser suggests that, all other things being equal, producer economies of scale will allow EES-compliant devices to be the lowest-cost hardware-based civilian cryptography products available. In addition, EES products will have the significant advantage of being able to communicate with the government's telephones, something that any competing technology will lack.{246}
The Clinton Administration also announced that it will exempt EES
products from the export ban in the ITAR.{247} If the ITAR [Page 771]
are revised in this manner,
EES products will become the only U.S.-made exportable products
offering strong encryption, disadvantaging U.S-based competitors
further.{248} These
efforts have already had an effect: the day that the Administration
announced its plans for Clipper, AT&T announced that its new
secure telephone, the 3600, would not use a DES device as originally
announced, but would use Clipper instead.{249}
The current Administration makes no secret of its hope that the
combination of federal standard-setting, federal purchasing power,
and fine-tuning of export control will allow it to impose a de
facto standard on the public, even though there is no statutory
authority for the standard, and even though Congress has never
appropriated a penny to support the standard. In so doing, NIST
has pioneered a new type of un-rule. It is a rule that the
Administration indeed hopes and intends to have a "practical
binding effect,"{250} but not because the rule announces to the
public how the agency will act in the future, nor because the
agency intends to act in compliance with the rule, nor because the
rule describes safe harbors for compliance [Page 772]
with existing rules.{251} Rather, by issuing
the rule (if a rule it be), the agency hopes to set in motion a
train of events that will coerce the public's compliance.
NIST's use of a FIPS in this manner is an interesting reversal of the usual circumstance of a nonlegislative rule that an agency intends to be binding.{252} In the ordinary situation, an agency has chosen not to use the notice and comment procedure that characterizes informal rule making under APA § 553, and has simply issued the rule, perhaps labeling it "interpretative" or "policy guidance." A party seeking to challenge the rule attempts to demonstrate that the rule is actually legislative and thus invalid without notice and comment. The aggrieved party argues that it was entitled to be consulted on the rule and that the agency may not deprive the party of its right to make comments. Once the comments are duly docketed, the agency has a duty to take them seriously and may not reject them without giving nonarbitrary reasons.{253} In the classic case, the agency responds by denying the substantive import of its rule and arguing that, because the rule breaks no new ground, notice and comment are not necessary.
With FIPS 185, NIST has turned this process on its head. A
proposed version of FIPS 185 was published in the Federal
Register, and NIST solicited comments.{254} It received
hundreds.{255} NIST
accepted a few, but rejected many others on the disingenuous
grounds that because the standard was entirely voluntary, it could
cause no harm.{256}
NIST thus invoked the formally voluntary [Page 773]
nature of the FIPS as
justification for dismissing the concerns of commentators who saw
FIPS 185 for what it was, and what NIST itself surely understood it
to be: an attempt to coerce the public through market means. NIST
simply failed to address the merits of many important complaints,
including those challenging the security, necessity, or wisdom of
its proposal, with the result of significantly devaluing the
opportunity to comment.{257} Yet, unlike most agencies that fail to
address the merits of comments received on a proposed rule, NIST
likely has little to fear from judicial review of its decision
because there appears to be no one with standing to challenge its
actions.
Even a competing product manufacturer would be unlikely to have
standing to protest a procurement order for products conforming to
FIPS 185.{258} As a
plaintiff, such a competitor might be able to argue that had it not
been for the permission to purchase the items granted in FIPS 185,
the procuring agency might have purchased the plaintiff's devices
instead. Such a claim would, however, be risky at best. The
plaintiff would have to mount a convincing case regarding
causation, somehow demonstrating that but for FIPS 185, the
plaintiff's products would have conformed with the agency's
requirements;{259} the
plaintiff would also need to [Page
774]
show that the agency would have been unable to
obtain a waiver from the preexisting requirement that it use a DES
product to protect sensitive information.{260} Without an
extraordinarily good factual basis, this barrier is probably
insurmountable, leaving the would-be plaintiff without the direct
personal stake in the case necessary for standing.
One other possible strategy for the plaintiff would be to claim "reputational" injury to its product or firm on the grounds that the FIPS would cause customers other than the government to reject its nonconforming products. Those employing this strategy could then try to invoke Meese v. Keene{261} to overturn the no-standing-to-challenge-a-FIPS rule of Control Data Corp. v. Baldridge.{262}
Otherwise, it is very difficult to imagine who might have standing to sue to overturn FIPS 185. A party seeking relief would have to argue that the FIPS was not as harmless as NIST claimed, and that the replies to comments were therefore defective. Just as NIST was able to ignore critical comments on its draft FIPS by saying that the standard was optional and hence harmless,{263} so too could it argue that because the standard is nonbinding, no one has a legal right to demand that a court review it.{264}
Should the Administration's attempt to combine technical
standard-setting authority with market power succeed, however, [Page 775]
many parties will be
justly aggrieved. Makers of competing products will lose market
share, and perhaps may be driven out of their market altogether.
Individuals who might have preferred non-escrowed encryption, if it
could be obtained at or near the same price as an EES device, may
find that option closed to them. Such a policy will establish a
new and undesirable process by which the government will likely be
able to avoid the APA in a small, but significant, class of
cases.{265} Current law
does not recognize any of these injuries, save perhaps the claim of
lost market share, as legally cognizable.{266} A major decision as
to the degree of privacy to be afforded to U.S. citizens will have
been made without effective congressional or popular
participation.
Placing all FIPS, or all standard-setting relating to high technology, under the APA would be one way of ensuring that the executive branch can never again use standard-setting to manipulate the market for high technology items, at least not without judicial review for reasonableness. Although this change would vaccinate against the disease, it would also have undesirable side-effects. Neither nonbinding national technical standards nor the government's internal procurement standards should be litigated.{267} If a manufacturer is dissatisfied because a national or procurement standard more closely conforms to a competitor's product than its own, the proper place to fight that battle is the marketplace, not a court. EES is a special case because the technology at issue has social implications far beyond the ordinary FIPS, and because the government is seeking to use its purchasing power to coerce the market to achieve an end other than reliability, ease of use, or technical excellence. It would be a pity if prevention of such special cases were to force so disruptive a change on a system which ordinarily seems to work reasonably well.{268}
[Page 776]
Trying to find an
avenue for judicial review of a coercive but formally voluntary FIPS
is probably more trouble than it is worth.{269} The greatest
procedural problem with FIPS 185 is not the absence of judicial review
but the attempt to evade congressional participation in a decision
that may have major social consequences for many years. The solution
to this problem is logically, if not politically, simple. If the
executive branch did not have funds available with which to purchase
thousands of EES-equipped devices, it would have to go to Congress for
the money. Congress could then debate the issue and, regardless of
what it decided, the process would conform with the values of
openness, explanation, and representative democracy which the un-rule
rule undermines. To prevent further abuses of the FIPS procedure,
either the Justice Department's Asset Forfeiture Fund should be
returned to the Treasury, or its terms should be narrowed to make it
clear that its proceeds cannot be used to attempt to influence product
markets.{270}
3. Did NIST's Cooperation with the NSA over FIPS
185 Violate the Computer Security Act of 1987?
NIST's relationship with the NSA is poorly documented.{271} Clipper's critics
argue that NIST's adoption of EES in FIPS 185 violated either the
letter or the spirit of the Computer Security Act [Page 777]
of 1987{272} (Act), because, even
though the Act was designed to ensure civilian control of computer
security issues, NIST effectively and illegally ceded its powers to
the NSA.{273} NIST and
the NSA have refused to make public any information regarding their
discussions that would show whether NIST complied with the Act.
Consequently, it is currently impossible to make an informed
judgment as to NIST's compliance with the Act.{274} All that can be said
pending litigation is that NIST has not proved that it complied
with the Act.{275}
The claim that NIST violated the Act draws much of its force from
the legislative history of the Act and from NIST's subsequent close
relationship with the NSA, which arguably violates the spirit of
the Act.{276} In 1984
President Ronald Reagan issued National Security Decision Directive
(NSDD) 145, which put in motion a train of events leading to the
Act. NSDD 145 granted the NSA sweeping powers to make policy and
develop standards for the "safeguarding" of both
classified and unclassified information in civilian agencies and in
the private sector.{277}
This transfer to the NSA of authority [Page 778]
over civilian and especially
private information was the precise evil that the Act was designed
to cure.{278} The
legislative history states that Congress believed that the NSA's
"natural tendency to restrict and even deny access to
information" disqualified it from that role,{279} and Congress
therefore rejected the NSA's suggestion, made in testimony to a
House committee, that the Act should formally place the NSA in
charge of all government computer security.{280}
Nevertheless, the Act does not require a watertight separation between NIST and the NSA. Instead, the Act directs NIST to "draw[] on the technical advice and assistance" of the NSA "where appropriate."{281} NIST is also directed to "coordinate closely" with several other agencies, including the NSA, to avoid duplication of effort{282} and to use the NSA's computer security guidelines to the extent that NIST, not the NSA, determines they should apply.{283}
Soon after the Act became law, NIST and the NSA signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) setting out a detailed regime of
cooperation regarding computer and telecommunications security
issues.{284} With one
exception, the MOU appears to be designed to create interagency
consultation and to prevent duplication of effort, as required by
the Act. That exception, though, is not trivial: NIST agrees to
submit "all matters" regarding "techniques to be
developed for use in protecting sensitive information" in its
purview to review by a Technical Working Group comprised of equal
numbers of the NSA and NIST staff in order "to ensure they are
consistent with the national security of the United States."{285} If the two agencies
are unable to agree, then either agency can refer the matter to
both the Secretary of Commerce and [Page 779]
the Secretary of Defense,
from where it may go to either the National Security Council or the
President for an ultimate decision. Meanwhile, "[n]o action
shall be taken on such an issue until it is resolved."{286}
It is clear that NIST and the NSA have had extensive contacts regarding EES.{287} Whether these contacts, and in particular the actions of the Technical Working Group, amount to a violation of the Act depends on whether EES was referred to the Technical Working Group, and on how the NIST-NSA relationship worked. The Act clearly requires NIST to make its own decisions;{288} there is no statutory authority for NIST to let the NSA make decisions for it. Just as clearly, the Act requires NIST to consult with the NSA, although it directs NIST to decide when consultation is appropriate.{289}
There is no reason, with or without the Act or the MOU, that NIST
could not allow itself to be persuaded by the NSA, so long as NIST
were to keep the ultimate power of decision.{290} The MOU [Page 780]
between the NSA and NIST does,
however, suggest two scenarios that would violate the Act. If the
working group deadlocked on some issue, or took votes in which the two
NIST members were outvoted four-to-two (or three-to-two), and if NIST
changed its policies as a result of either of these votes,{291} then NIST would
no longer be in the position of allowing itself to be persuaded by the
NSA. Instead, the NSA would be dictating to NIST. This would violate
the Act. As the decision to proceed with EES clearly comes from the
highest levels of the U.S. government,{292} in the absence
of firm information one cannot reject the deadlock scenario out of
hand. There is, however, some reason to doubt it.
The deadlock scenario was anticipated in a 1989 codicil to the
MOU.{293} After
members and staff of the House Committee on Government Operations
expressed concern about the apparent grant to the NSA of an effective
veto over NIST's decisions, NIST and the NSA explained that although
the Technical Working Group had broad jurisdiction as a discussion
forum, the appeals process described in the MOU applied only to
"proposed research and development projects in new areas."{294} This codicil,
signed by representatives of both agencies with the express intent of
binding their successors, distinguishes between "promulgation of
standards and guidelines" by NIST, which are not subject to
appeal,{295} and [Page 781]
the "early stage in
the standards research and development process--usually years before a
standard is promulgated,"{296} from which appeals are permitted.
Neither NIST nor the NSA have made public statements as to the involvement of the Technical Working Group in the decision to promulgate FIPS 185. Whether the agreement required NIST to refer EES to the Technical Working Group before issuing FIPS 185 is unclear. But it appears that under the distinction set out in the 1989 codicil to the MOU, FIPS 185 would have been within the jurisdiction of the Technical Working Group, but outside the appeals procedure. Thus, if the 1989 codicil controlled, the deadlock scenario could only have applied if NIST preferred an alternative to EES but was persuaded to use EES against its better judgment. Alternately, because SKIPJACK was developed by the NSA, it is entirely possible that the entire EES proposal originated in the NSA, and that by the time the NSA disclosed SKIPJACK to NIST, the NSA had decided that neither SKIPJACK nor EES was a "proposed research and development project[] in [a] new area[]" under the terms of the codicil.{297} Both NIST and the NSA assert that the appeals procedure has never been used.{298} The agencies contend that the lack of appeals is evidence of the success of their cooperation.{299} Whatever the facts, NIST owes the public, and Congress, a clearer explanation of its relationship with the intelligence community. Congress is entitled to an explicit reassurance that NIST remains in complete control of security for civilian federal computer systems as required by the Act. The House and Senate committees with oversight over NIST should force it to provide these assurances. If NIST is unable to do so because it has allowed its judgment to be suppressed by the NSA's veto, then Congress will need to revise the Computer Security Act to create stronger incentives for NIST to preserve its jurisdiction--perhaps even instituting penalties for noncompliance.{300}
Ideally, the escrow agents would be as incorruptible as possible,
possessed of a clear charter setting out their positive and
negative duties, insulated from pressure from the law enforcement
and intelligence communities, and outfitted with secure facilities
to store the list of key fragments (which may, if EES catches on,
become one of the most valuable items of information held by the
U.S. govern[Page 783]
ment).
They must also be trusted by the public, or the public will not
participate in the EES scheme. With the exception of the secure
facilities, the list of necessary attributes describes a body
resembling the federal judiciary. Not surprisingly, some noted
cryptologists have suggested that the judiciary hold the keys.{305} No doubt the
judiciary could acquire the technical competence and equipment
required to generate and secure the keys.
Whether judges could constitutionally hold one or more key
fragments is a close question.{306} It is clear that Congress could not hold the
keys, nor could any congressional agent.{307} Holding keys is an executive function. It
would involve judges in the law enforcement process at a time when
there is no case or controversy and, as regards the large majority
of the keys, no prospect of one. Because holding keys is an
executive function, the judiciary (or an agency such as the
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which is responsible only
to judges) can constitutionally hold the keys only if the function
is "incidental" to its Article III functions.{308} If the task is more
than "incidental," then the principle of separation of
powers requires that it be undertaken by the executive branch or by
private citizens.{309}
The court taking [Page 784]
custody of the keys would be in a position reminiscent of
Hayburn's Case,{310} which has long stood for the proposition that
neither the legislative nor executive branches may assign duties to
the judiciary "but such as are properly judicial, and to be
performed in a judicial manner."{311} Unlike Hayburn's Case, however, the
judges would not be asked to decide anything until the government
was granted a search warrant. The court would presumably disclose
the key fragment(s) along with the ex parte order granting the
warrant.
Judges already do a number of things that come close to holding
a key fragment, but each is distinguishable. Courts and their
adjuncts have for many years exercised a wide variety of ancillary
powers such as rule making, and the appointment and supervision of
court personnel, which are "reasonably ancillary to the
primary, dispute-deciding function of the courts."{312} Courts have also
supervised grand juries for many years.{313} More recently, Congress has given the judges
and courts additional responsibilities, including membership on the
Sentencing Commission,{314} and the selection and supervision of
independent counsel.{315} Indeed, the granting of warrants (and the
record-keeping which follows) are ex parte proceedings, clearly
within the Article III jurisdiction of the courts. Taking custody
of a key in advance of any adversary or even any ex parte
proceeding, with the knowledge that most keys will never be subject
to such a proceeding, goes beyond any of these precedents. Perhaps
the closest analogy is the court's marshal who is instructed to
keep order even though there is no reason to believe [Page 785]
that any particular person
will seek to disrupt the court's functioning. Even the marshals
are an imperfect parallel, however, because their activities
impinge only on persons who come into contact with the court or
with court personnel; holding key fragments could affect the
privacy of many who have no other contact with the judicial
system.
Whether the functions of protecting keys from disclosure and disclosing keys to facilitate wiretaps are sufficiently ancillary to the judicial function of issuing wiretap orders and warrants as to be constitutional is ultimately a matter of taste. The existence of the FISA court,{316} whose sole jurisdiction is to receive and rule on petitions for foreign-intelligence-related surveillance, adds some support to the argument that holding a key fragment would be incidental to Article III functions, because the act of holding the keys is only a little more ancillary to traditional judicial functions than are the FISA court's actions.{317}
As a quick fix, the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of
the Treasury should each immediately issue separate regulations,
published in the Federal Register, defining the role of the
escrow agents in their respective agencies and making clear that
the escrow agents have a legal duty to protect the keys from all
release except as specified in the rules. In the longer term,
Congress should pass legislation vesting the escrow function in
independent agencies specifically created for that purpose.{318} Although opinions
differ as to the degree of tenure in office that the Constitution
allows Congress to confer on the heads of independent agencies,{319} there [Page 786]
is no debate that independent
agency status represents an attempt to shield a function from
political manipulation, and that the officers of an independent
agency have at least political insulation from dismissal by a
President who finds them insubordinate. Alternate structures, in
which EES-product users can choose to lodge their keys with any one
of a number of private escrow agents, might provide even greater
security to users, but at the price of some additional complexity.
One can imagine a system in which private escrow agents would apply
to the Attorney General for certification as suitably secure and
perhaps post bond to ensure that they would deliver up keys when
legally ordered to do so. Although this system might satisfy both
the user's desire for security and the government's desire for
certain access, it introduces practical problems. The government
will still need to keep a master list of chip serial numbers in
order to know which escrow agent has the key. Furthermore, a
private escrow agent would have to charge a fee, to be paid either
by the chip user or the taxpayer. There is also no particular
reason to believe private escrow agents would be less corruptible
than the Justice Department, although if key fragments were
distributed among many different escrow agents, the harm caused by
compromise of any given database would be lessened.{320}
B. Unresolved Issues
In testimony to the haste with which the Administration launched
the EES program, important implementation issues remain unresolved.
[Page 787]
The proposed Encryption Standards and Procedures Act would have
authorized the President to release keys to foreign governments
when she "determines that such access and use is in the [Page 788]
ational security and
foreign policy interests of the United States."{325} Nothing in the draft
legislation would have required that the owner of the chip ever be
notified that her security has been permanently compromised. It is
interesting to speculate whether a company that suffered a loss due
to the release of commercially sensitive information in this manner
would have a takings or a tort claim against the United States.
2. Clipper Abroad?
Unlike other modern encryption products, Clipper-equipped
products will be exportable. Presumably, U.S. businesses using
Clipper at home will welcome the opportunity to use the same
products in their foreign subsidiaries. Whether other foreigners
would wish to buy a product that comes with a guarantee that the
U.S. government can listen in seems more doubtful.
There are two strategies, however, that the Administration might use to boost foreign sales. The first would be to share the family key with foreign governments and perhaps also allow those governments to be the escrow holders for certain chips. The alternative would be to manufacture some chips with a different family key, perhaps even a different family key for each foreign market. The alternative family key could be disclosed to the foreign government without compromising the security of the U.S. chips, but two chips with different family keys would not be able to communicate in secure mode because they would not recognize each other's LEAFs as valid.
The globalization of commerce means that sensitive commercial
(and, increasingly, personal) communications cross national
borders. Even if EES becomes the de facto U.S. standard, it is
unlikely to meet with wide acceptance abroad as long as the family
key and the chip unique keys are held by the U.S. government. Why,
after all, should [Page 789]
non-U.S. buyers acquire a product designed to make eavesdropping
by the U.S. government relatively easy?{326}
Whether non-U.S. buyers choose a similar
product with a different family key or a different system entirely,
the result will be to make secure communications between a U.S.
party and a non-U.S. party more difficult. If, as the FBI
suggests, the U.S. has the most to lose from industrial
espionage,{327} EES may
hurt U.S. business more than it hurts anyone else.
A LEAF followed by a wire communication presents a complicated
problem under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of
[Page 790]
1986 (ECPA).{330}
The sensible argument that the LEAF is an integral part of the conversation, and
thus really within the umbrella of the wire communication that
follows, hits a snag due to the ECPA's definition of the
"contents" of a wire communication. Where formerly Title
III had defined the contents of a wire communication as including
any information "concerning the identity of the parties to
such communication,"{331} the ECPA deleted the quoted words, leaving the
contents of a wire communication defined as only the
"substance, purport, or meaning" of the communication.{332} Fitting a LEAF
within that definition requires a stretch. The LEAF itself
contains none of the "substance, purport, or meaning" of
the encrypted conversation--just information about the identity of
the chip needed to acquire those things.
If a LEAF were found to be an electronic noncommunication legally
severable from the wire communication that follows it, the LEAF
would enjoy a lower level of statutory protection than if the LEAF
were treated as part of the content of the wire communication: (1)
Law enforcement officials would not need a warrant to intercept and
record a LEAF, but only the more routine judicial orders required
for pen registers;{333}
(2) under the ECPA, any Assistant U.S. Attorney would be allowed to
seek a court order to intercept a LEAF, not just the specially
designated high-ranking members of the Justice Department who have
authority to seek a wiretap warrant;{334} and (3) the [Page
791]
statutory exclusionary rule applicable to wire
communications would not apply.{335} Without the
statutory exclusionary rule, the victim of an illegal interception
of a LEAF would have a civil remedy (and the interceptor would face
possible criminal prosecution), but no right to suppress evidence
would exist unless the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule
applied.{336}
If a LEAF is severable in this manner, it is not as clear as it
should be that the LEAF would enjoy any protection under the Fourth
Amendment. Because decrypting the LEAF with the family key
involves listening to at least a few seconds of the conversation,
the act of intercepting and decrypting the LEAF is a wiretap of an
electronic communication even if the information thus gathered (the
identity of the other chip) is no greater than could be had with a
trap and trace or a pen register. Traffic analysis using pen
registers (which record the numbers called by a telephone) and trap
and trace devices (which record numbers calling the telephone) does
not implicate the Fourth Amendment.{337} Under Title III, however, both methods
require a court order, although an actual warrant is not
required.{338} Despite
being a wiretap, the interception of a LEAF might not violate the
Fourth Amendment if the telephone user has no reasonable
expectation of privacy for the LEAF.
An EES chip user should have a reasonable expectation of privacy, as the term is used in Fourth Amendment cases,{339} in her LEAF, but the question is not as free from doubt as it should be. The difficulty arises because the user is aware that the government has the information needed to decrypt the LEAF. Although the government has promised to use that information only in specific circumstances, it is just a promise, and as the government cannot be estopped, it is usually free to renege, although in some circumstances this action might amount to a denial of due process.
[Page 792]
A reasonable
expectation of privacy requires both a subjective expectation of
privacy and an "objective" recognition that the expectation
is reasonable.{340}
A Supreme Court that can hold that one has no reasonable expectation
of privacy in the telephone numbers one dials,{341} or in the checks
one allows to be cleared by one's bank,{342} because the
information has been disclosed to others, is capable of holding that
emitting a LEAF with knowledge that the government can decrypt it puts
the LEAF in the same position as the telephone number dialed.{343}
A LEAF on its own is not worthless, although it is worth less
than a session key. A large-scale eavesdropper armed with the
family key could collect LEAFs. Because each LEAF contains the
chip serial identifier, it allows a large-scale eavesdropper to
conduct traffic analysis{344} without having to gain access to a
telecommunication provider's equipment to set up thousands of trap
and traces or pen registers. If satellite or microwave telephone
signals are being monitored, the LEAF-monitoring method of traffic
analysis is undetectable.{345} Furthermore, if one is trying to collect all
the calls from a particular machine in an attempt to decrypt them,
decrypting the LEAF allows one to know which calls to record and
file for future reference. Of course, if the eavesdropper has a
warrant, in most cases all of this and more is easily obtained from
the telephone service provider.{346} It would be monstrous, though, to have a rule
that said the government could acquire the LEAF for traffic
analysis after falsely promising the American people that EES [Page 793]
would be secure. A
court construing both the objective and subjective prongs of the
reasonable expectation of privacy test would have a moral
obligation to take this into consideration.