Word: keyed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Historically, the U.S. has restricted exports of encryption to foreign countries. It is currently illegal to export encryption products beyond a certain strength without giving the government a key, a system known as "key escrow." Encryption has been classified as a type of munitions, a tool of war. The argument was that if terrorists, organized crime networks or other unpleasant people got their hands on powerful encryption software, they could encode their plans in a way that the CIA and the FBI couldn't understand...
Unfortunately, the Clinton Administration seems to see things the other way around. To keep individuals' documents open for government view, the Administration is pushing a plan for a national key escrow system, in which either the government or an approved third party would receive a key to every strong code, even those used only within the U.S. The Administration says that the keys would be accessed only with a valid court order...
Nonetheless, such a plan would be extremely dangerous; just like the export restrictions, it would weaken individuals' privacy without hurting criminals. A key escrow law would be very difficult to enforce, since lawbreakers could always use the products already widespread before the restrictions. Whether the third parties involved in this system could be trusted would always be a matter of faith...
More important, though, is the implication that the government doesn't trust its citizens to communicate privately, Imagine what the House Un-American Activities Committee might have done in a country where most communication was electronic and the government always had a key. Applying the principle to other means of communication makes the administration's argument seem ludicrous. Think how many criminals have communicated by word of mouth: why don't we force everyone to wear a hidden microphone? Apparently, law-abiding citizens would never object to having other people listen to what they say-unless they needed to hide...
...flat terrain the Buzz can cover 13 miles between charges and can zip along at 15 m.p.h., which feels fast enough when you're so close to the ground. The machine has two safety features that I particularly appreciate. You need a key to start it, which is good when you have so many curious underage testers around. And you need to engage the hand brake before you can activate the throttle, which makes it almost impossible to lurch forward inadvertently. Also, the throttle is variable speed, which makes it useful for slow cruising among pedestrians. Indeed, I could...