EAVESDROPPING WITH AL AND CLIPPER

The Net lit up this week with the rumor that the Clinton Administration was backing down on its controversial stand requiring hardware and software makers to use the Clipper Chip. The new and somewhat faulty technology is designed to lock out electronic snoops while giving the government a "back door" to listen in on private conversations and transactions. But that moment of electronic glasnost was more wishful thinking than political reality.What set off privacy-loving Net users in the first place was a midweek letter from Vice President Al Gore indicating he will now seek other security schemes that make the computer industry less nervous. By the end of the week, though, Gore was setting the record straight that "no policy shift was intended," according to a Veep spokesperson. In other words, the Clinton Administration still wants a surveillance trapdoor built into U.S. communications products, by some other name.