Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 19:44:20 +0000
From: Robert Henderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The coming totalitarian state - encryption
Daily Telegraph London 9/3/2000
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Leading Article
AS HIS contribution to the defeat of the forces of
conservatism -- which increasingly have come to include
people who cherish civil liberties --Jack Straw wants to give
the police new powers to control the internet. To the casual
user, spraying gossip around the office or notes to friends
and family abroad, the internet feels a very private medium.
But e-mails sent through commercial service providers are in
fact more like electronic postcards, which can be read by
any nosy or malevolent individual determined to hack into the
system for a cheap thrill or commercial gain.
Therefore, most businesses encrypt their e-mail systems with
a digital key. With the misleadingly named Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Bill, which was given its second reading
in the Commons this week, Mr Straw seeks to take control of
encrypted digital traffic, by forcing internet users to keep
a decryption key to present to the police on demand. Should
the key go missing or become corrupted, the user must prove
he has not acted illegally. Most perniciously, the Bill would
force internet service providers, such as Freeserve and AOL,
to install equipment at their own expense to spy on their own
customers on behalf of the police .
The Government has raised the familiar spectre of child
pornography and terrorism to justify this unwarranted
extension of powers. Patricia Hewitt, the minister
responsible for e-commerce, says the internet is transforming
crime as well as commerce: "We have to fight back," she has
argued, "which is why the Government intends to modernise
police powers." Leaving aside the Orwellian use of the word
"modernise" when she means "extend", there is absolutely no
reason to believe the new powers would be effective. Why on
earth would terrorists or paedophiles obey the new law and
meekly surrender their encryption key when challenged?
In practice, the internet users worst affected will be
businesses, which will be forced into costly and intrusive
procedures and which might prefer to move their head
offices to other parts of Europe, where the law is less
onerous. It is bad enough that this Government does not seem
able willingly to relinquish the powers that the internet is
passing back to the individual. It is intolerable when,
seeking to enact regressive legislation, it postures as a
force of progressivism acting "to protect our kids".
--
Robert Henderson
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