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

From: Bill Unruh (unruh_at_string.physics.ubc.ca)
Date: 08/08/04 

Date: 8 Aug 2004 21:49:42 GMT

Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@t-online.de> writes:

]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
How do they know that what you supply them is actually teh decrypted
message?

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