AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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Report on Science and Human Rights

Summer/Fall 2000 Vol XXI, No. 2

US Encryption Export Policy Update

White House Chief of Staff John Podesta announced in July major new changes that will relax US export controls on data encryption technology.

Podesta announced that American companies will now able to export encryption products to anyone in the European Union, Australia, Norway, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Japan, New Zealand, and Switzerland, once they have turned in a commodity classification request for their products to the Department of Commerce. They no longer have to wait for a technical review to be completed. Exporting to nations not covered by the above list still requires federal review. Special restrictions still apply to exports to Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and other sanctioned entities.

Podesta’s July announcement was the latest in a series of moves this year by the Clinton administration to relax US policies in order to keep American companies competitive in the encryption market. These changes, however, are also good news for US human rights activists who use encryption or help human rights workers in other countries obtain encryption technologies. Most readily available encryption products, like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy, a widely used encryption package) may be distributed in non-sanctioned countries once the products have been cleared by the Commerce Department.

Updated regulations that went into effect in January allow cryptographers to post encryption source code to the Internet, provided they supply the Commerce Department with the code’s Internet address by the time it goes on-line.

The new encryption policies have been announced, but have not yet been formalized as official regulations. For full information about the new encryption policies and their status, visit the Bureau of Export Administration’s encryption web page at http://www.bxa.doc.gov/encryption.