I was on a Portland-area TV forum this evening and was able to raise the wiretap chip issue to a lay audience (in addition to being in some ways a lay person myself on this issue, but quite concerned). Here are some talking points and phrases I found helpful: * Compared and contrasted a "wiretap chip", which gives government agencies the keys to your private conversations, and a "privacy chip" where you keep the keys (come to think of it, I'm not sure that second point is technically correct -- how would a truly private phone handle the keys?) * Compared giving government agencies crypto keys to giving the IRS the keys to your house and filing cabinet. * As examples I used lawyer/client, psychiatrist/patient, priest/confessor and political campaign work done over the phone. * Showed New York Times front page story (Fri. 4/16) to the camera, to demonstrate that this is important, not a fringe issue and that the wiretap chip is real. Quoted Stephen Bryen of Secured Communications Technologies Inc., "I think the government is creating a monster." * Emphasized importance of learning about telephone and e-mail technology, and how they can be made private with open cryptography. (As opposed to top-secret chip designs which I called "closed cryptography"). * Stated that I was switching from AT&T to another provider in protest of their selling phones containing wiretap chips. I wanted to use a see-thru telephone as a prop to point at computer chips inside the phone, but wasn't able to locate one in time. Some of this may sound corny and less accurate than a technical presentation, but I needed to make the lay audience at least mildly informed, sympathetic and perhaps even motivated to write their phone company or their Congresscritters within about the three minutes of air time. Further suggestions for sound bites, vid clips etc. to use in a media campaign greatly appreciated. Nick Szabo szabo@techbook.com