Hello.
As you might
know, the British Government plans to pass legislation to control how data
is encrypted on the Net.
We're a bit
worried about this.
From what we've
been able to find out, the proposed law will require any government-approved
encryption service to store copies of your private encryption key.
We think
that's a bad idea. Why?
-
It's bad
for e-commerce. | More
-
It'll cost
British jobs, and drive business
overseas. |
More
-
It won't
catch a single criminal. | More
-
On the nod of a
police inspector, your email
could be monitored.
| More
-
If the police can
monitor your email, so can criminals. | More
We think
you can help.
We're not sure,
but we suspect that our politicians - for all their enthusiasm about this
wonderfully exciting Internet thing - don't really understand it
at all. We think they don't know what a huge mistake they're making.
We feel sure
that, if they heard about how dangerous this new law is, they'd never want
to pass it in this current form.
Could you help?
Yes! You can @dopt your local MP, and educate him/her before it's too
late. The @doption form is at the top of the orange right hand column.
WHY the Government's
crypto proposal is A Bad Thing:
It's bad
for e-commerce. | Top
It will add
billions to the cost of doing business online, and take months - even years
- to implement.
People won't
trust a system which gives a government-appointed stranger a back-door key to their
e-mail.
Overseas consumers
and businesses won't want to trade with us. They won't want to give away
the keys to their data, either.
It'll cost
British jobs, by driving business overseas. | Top
On the Net,
it doesn't matter (much) where you're located. Businesses will move
away from UK to countries with more sensible approaches to this issue -
nations like Ireland, Canada, and Finland (you know, the usual international
pariahs).
There is near-zero
enthusiasm for the government's proposals amongst big business. Anywhere. Even the CBI.
It won't
catch a single criminal. | Top
Criminals won't
use the government's system. It's trivially easy to bypass the proposed
controls if you're planning on breaking the law.
Despite this,
we've yet to hear of one example of an investigation which has been hampered
by an inability to break encrypted codes. (if you know of one, please
tell us!)
On the nod
of a police inspector, all your email
could be
monitored. | Top
And you'd never
be allowed to know.
Currently, telephone
taps require the signature of the Home Secretary. The new law will only
require the permission of a local police inspector for the keys to all
your present - and past - communications to be released.
Under the present
law, all those being monitored are informed after the surveillance period
has ended and/or enquiries has been concluded. Under the new law, you won't
be told.
Indeed, it will
be illegal to tell you that your email has been read.
If the police
can monitor your email, so can criminals. |
Top
Modern encryption
systems give you the only copy of the key to your data. It's up to you
to keep it secret.
The government's
proposals will place copies of these keys in a few, centralised locations.
There'll be no way of guaranteeing the safety of these keys, even though
they will unlock millions of pounds worth of commercial and personal
data.
