FC: UK government wants to snoop on your encrypted messages

[Declan McCullagh <declan () wired com>]

More:
http://slashdot.org/yro/00/02/09/1445242.shtml


http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_638000/638041.stm
Surveillance bill under fire

At issue is the burden of proof

The UK Government came under fire on Thursday from the internet community
after it published a Bill to regulate covert surveillance.

The critics say the legislation, if passed, could lead to innocent people
being sent to jail simply because they have lost their data encryption
codes.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill covers the monitoring and the
interception of communications by law enforcement and security agencies. It
will, for example, lay down the legal rules that must be followed by the
police and security services when they tap someone's phone.

It also regulates the authorities' access to the codes that encrypt data
sent over the net. Such encryption will increasingly become a routine tool
of e-commerce, built into ordinary e-mail and browser software. But the Home
Office is deeply concerned that criminals, such as paedophiles, will use
encryption to hide their activities.

And, as a result, the Bill proposes that the police or the security services
should have the power to force someone to hand over decryption keys or the
plain text of specified materials, such as e-mails, and jail those who
refuse.

[...]


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