Re: Encrypted e-mail - what are the laws?

From: Mok-Kong Shen (mok-kong.shen_at_t-online.de)
Date: 08/08/04 

Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 20:32:37 +0200

BRG wrote:

> Mok-Kong Shen wrote:

>> From my 'vague' memory, France had once forbidden common people
>> to employ encryption (in a quite general framework) and in UK
>> one has to provide the encryption key in case demanded by the
>> authorities.
>
> This is not true right now although it might become true in the future.
>
> A law has been passed that contains provisions for Government Access to
> Keys (GAK) but the part of the legislation that contains the clauses
> covering GAK has to be activated by Parliament and this has not yet
> happened.
>
> It is, however, true that the authorities can demand the decryption of
> an encrypted message.
>
> But this is not the same as being able to demand decryption keys.

Thanks for the information. One thing however puzzles me. If
the authority already has the legal power of demanding decryption,
why is it then necessary to have a new law to enable them to
demand the key? (After getting the key, they have to do the
decryption work themselves. Why don't they just, as now, simply
let the whole decryption work be done by the person involved?)

M. K. Shen

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