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

From: BRG (brg_at_nowhere.org)
Date: 08/08/04 

Date: Sun, 08 Aug 2004 21:17:50 +0100

Mok-Kong Shen wrote:
>
>
> 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?)

I am very much against GAK so its not my job to argue for it.

But the argument used to justify it are about the ability to decrypt
_future_ encrypted messages in situations where speed of action may be
necessary.

    Brian Gladman

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