Ray Ozzie’s plan for unlocking encrypted phones gets a chilly reception

Enlarge / A patent image depicting how Clear would work. (credit: Ray Ozzie)

Ray Ozzie's proposal to end the long-simmering crypto war between law enforcement and much of the tech world is getting a chilly reception from privacy advocates and security experts. They argue his plan is largely the same key-escrow program proposed 20 years ago and suffers from the same fatal shortcomings.

Dubbed "Clear," Ozzie's idea was first detailed Wednesday in an article published in Wired and described in general terms last month. The former chief technical officer and chief software architect of Microsoft and the creator of Lotus Notes, Ozzie portrays Clear as a potential breakthrough in bridging the widening gulf between those who say the US government has a legitimate need to bypass encryption in extreme cases, such as those involving terrorism and child abuse, and technologists and civil libertarians who warn such bypasses threaten the security of billions of people.

In a nutshell, here's how Clear works:

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