What is Clipper?

Clipper refers to several technologies, making a single definitive explanation challenging. Historically, Clipper most commonly refers to the Clipper chip, a controversial hardware encryption device developed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in the 1990s. It was designed to provide strong encryption for voice communications but included a backdoor that would allow government access with a warrant. The Clipper chip faced widespread opposition from civil liberties groups and the technology community due to privacy concerns, and ultimately was not widely adopted. There was also the Clipper programming language, a dBase compiler for DOS.