“Clipper is an encryption chip developed and sponsored by the U.S. government as part of the Capstone project. Announced by the White House in April, 1993, Clipper was designed to balance the competing concerns of federal law-enforcement agencies with those of private citizens and industry. The law-enforcement agencies wish to have access to the communications of suspected criminals, for example by wire-tapping; these needs are threatened by secure cryptography. Industry and individual citizens, however, want secure communications, and look to cryptography to provide it.” (http://www.qualix.com/html/cstone.html)