GILLMOR: Zimmermann fighting battle for privacy By Dan Gillmor Mercury News Computing Editor PHILIP ZIMMERMANN wants to advance people's privacy in the digital age. In my book that makes him someone to admired. Our government, sad to say, thinks otherwise. At a conference in Burlingame last week, Zimmermann accepted a Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and dryly observed, ``It's kind of ironic to get an award for the very same thing I might be indicted for.'' Zimmermann's well-deserved honor was for his work in encryption -- scrambling of electronic communications so prying eyes can't understand them. More and more of our lives will end up on digital networks in coming years, making encryption more vital for o ur privacy. Why would you want to encrypt your e-mail if you had nothing to hide? For the same reason you put your letters and checks in an envelope rather than sending postcards. Taking advantage of a technique called public-key encryption, Zimmermann came up with software he called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP. It's very secure. Better yet, it's free. It's also a weapon, says the United States government in a policy that appears to have been written by some North Korean apparatchik and edited by Monty Python. PGP is good enough privacy to be listed as a ``munition'' by the feds, and therefore falls under a law prohibiting export without a license. The software was posted on the Internet, the worldwide network of computer networks. According to his lawyer, Zimm ermann made it available to friends because he wanted to ensure that Americans could protect their privacy in an era when governments and others have increasingly good tools for prying. He has no idea who ``exported'' the software. (When a product exists in a medium that ignores borders, what does ``export'' mean, anyway?) For two years a federal prosecutor in San Jose has been investigating Zimmermann, a computer security consultant who lives and works in Boulder, Colo. A grand jury under the prosecutor's direction soon may charge Zimmermann with violating the arms-export law. U.S. News & World Report calls the government's handling of Zimmermann Kafka-esque, a fitting description. The law is absurd when applied to electronic communications. Federal officials themselves apparently broke it with no penalty, and the government al lows you to export a book containing strong encryption code, though not a diskette with the same code. Meanwhile, in what looks from here like an abuse of power, the vast resources of the United States government have been used to hound Zimmermann. Allowing everyday citizens to protect their privacy is a terrifying concept to our government. The Clinton administration hasn't given up trying to persuade people to adopt an encryption standard that allows the government to unscramble all communications . They just don't get it. This popcorn can't be put back in the kernel. NOT only is this case a colossal waste of taxpayers' money, but the export restrictions are only hurting American companies that want to sell hardware and software overseas. Dumb and dumber. Zimmermann's legal bills are already substantial, and will grow outrageously if he is indicted. His friends have set up a defense fund. Please contribute. Send a check to Philip L. Dubois, Attorney Trust Account; 2305 Broadway; Boulder, CO 80304; note on the check that it's for the Philip Zimmermann Defense Fund. You can even send e-mail with your credit card number and amount of donation to dubois@csn.org. Of course, if you donate via e-mail, be sure to use PGP. [] A Frequently Asked Questions about PGP is available from Mercury Center on America Online (Keyword Mercury). Click on Business, then Computing, then Computing Library. It also is available on the Internet: http://www.prairienet.org/ ~jalicqui/pgpfaq.txt. Write Dan Gillmor at the Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Dr., San Jose, Calif. 95190; call (408) 920-5016; fax (408) 920-5917. Better yet, send him e-mail: dgillmor on Mercury Center or dgillmor@sjmercury.com on the Internet. Published 4/02/95 in the San Jose Mercury News.