GILC Press release- New UK Encryption Policy

[Rigo Wenning <wenning2@rz.uni-sb.de>]

FYI, 
auch im Zusammenhang mit dem deutschen Versuch 
eines Clipper - Chip zu sehen. FITUG gehört ebenfalls 
zu den Unterzeichnern. Falls eine deutsche Version 
gewünscht wird, bitte laut geben.

Rigo

--------------------------------------------
GILC Press Release

Global Internet Liberty Campaign Member Statement
New UK Encryption Policy criticised

17 February, 1998

This press release is available at
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/uk/gilc-dti-release-298.html

Today, members of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign criticised the
recent comments of the UK Home Secretary Jack Straw which favours the
development of "key recovery" solutions for the regulation of
encryption. The Global Internet Liberty Campaign which favours the
unrestricted use of cryptography to protect personal privacy confirmed
in a statement today that "mandatory key recovery policies would make
Britain a second-class nation in the Information Age".

GILC member statement is at:
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/uk/gilc-dti-statement-298.html

According to the GILC Member statement, Jack Straw's new initiatives
are at odds with the recently announced European Union policy on
encryption and the OECD policy guidelines on cryptography. The GILC
member statement further stated that "the debate about the prohibition
or limitation of the use of encryption will not only have a terrible
effect on online computer security - a national security issue itself
- and electronic commerce, but also directly affects the right to
privacy."

The GILC Member statement has been signed by 22 organisations
world-wide.

"Does Mr Straw really want every national government in the world to
be able to decrypt electronic communications?" asked Andrew Oram of
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. "How will that
encourage businesses to exchange sensitive plans and citizens to make
purchases over the Internet -- not to mention human rights and
democratic organisations? It is time to admit that governments will
have to find other ways to fight crime, and celebrate the rare blow in
favour of privacy that we have achieved with computer encryption."

According to Yaman Akdeniz of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK),
"Although privacy is not recognised as a basic human right within the
UK, Mr Jack Straw should remember that this will soon change with the
recently introduced UK Human Rights Bill which will incorporate the
European Convention on Human Rights. Of special concern is the
protection of privacy of online users on the Internet. Key escrow, key
recovery, and the DTI's conception of trusted third parties create
dangers for private communications on the Internet. The question is
not whether any such interception and access to encryption keys is
wrong, but whether it is safe to entrust all future governments in
perpetuity with an unprecedented technical capability for mass
surveillance."

GILC is an international coalition of civil liberties and human rights
organisations concerned with protection of political liberty in the
on-line world. GILC has members in more than twenty countries, and
maintains a web site at http://www.gilc.org/.

Press contact section:

Contact Mr. Yaman Akdeniz, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), +44
498 865116 or e-mail at lawya@leeds.ac.uk and/or Mr. Andrew Oram,
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (USA), +1
617-499-7479. or e-mail at andyo@ora.com.

For further information see:

Global Internet Liberty Campaign Member Statement: New UK Encryption
Policy criticised, February 1998, is available
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/uk/gilc-dti-statement-298.html. The press
release for this statement is available at:
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/uk/gilc-dti-release-298.html

GILC, Cryptography and Liberty: An International Survey of Encryption
Policy, February 1998, at
<http://www.gilc.org/crypto/crypto-survey.html>. A world survey of
crypto policies released in February  has found that most countries do
not restrict the use of encryption. 

GILC statement, "Human Rights and the Internet," January 1998,
<http://www.gilc.org/news/gilc-ep-statement-0198.html>.

GILC Resolution in Support of the Freedom to Use Cryptography,
September 1996, <http://www.gilc.org/crypto/oecd-resolution.html>.

The Labour Party Policy on Information Superhighway before the May
1997 elections, "Communicating Britain's Future,"
<http://www.labour.org.uk/views/info%2Dhighway/content.html>.

European Commission Communication, "Towards A European Framework for
Digital Signatures And Encryption," Communication from the Commission
to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social
Committee and the Committee of the Regions ensuring Security and Trust
in Electronic Communication, COM (97) 503, October 1997, at
<http://www.ispo.cec.be/eif/policy/97503toc.html>.

OECD Cryptography Policy Guidelines: Recommendation of the Council
Concerning Guidelines for Cryptography Policy, 27 March 1997, at
<http://www.oecd.org/dsti/sti/it/secur/prod/e-crypto.htm>.

Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), "First Report on UK Encryption
Policy" is available at
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/ukdtirep.htm>.

Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) advises Jack Straw, the UK Home
Secretary, on the issue of encryption, press release, 02 February,
1998, at <http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/crclukpr-3.html>.

British and Foreign Civil Rights Organisations Oppose Encryption
Paper, 9 April 1997. See
<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/crypto_b.htm>.

"Cryptography and Liberty: Can the Trusted Third Parties be Trusted? A
Critique of the Recent UK Proposals," 1997 (2) The Journal of
Information, Law and Technology (JILT).
<http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/cryptog/97_2akdz/>.

"Scrambling for Safety - Privacy, security and commercial implications
of the DTI's proposed encryption policy," Conference Report, 1997 (2)
The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT).
<http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/confs/97_2cryp/>.

Scrambling for Safety Conference web site is at
<http://www.privacy.org/pi/conference/dti/>.

Internet Engineering Task Force statement, "Internet groups critical
of government proposals to restrict encryption technology," at
<http://info.isoc.org:80/whatsnew/cryptog.html>.

Abelson, Anderson, et al., "The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and
Trusted Third Party Encryption," 1997, at
<http://www.crypto.com/key_study/>.

IRIS Report, "Cryptography : on the necessity of totally liberalising
the French law," at
<http://girafe.ensba.fr/iris/rapport-ce/annexe7.html>.

The Walsh Report, "Review of policy relating to encryption
technologies," at <http://www.efa.org.au/Issues/Crypto/Walsh/>.

Kryptographie, Cryptography resources in German from FITUG, at
<http://www.fitug.de/ulf/krypto/>.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yaman Akdeniz <lawya@leeds.ac.uk>
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) at:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm

Read CR&CL (UK) Report, 'Who Watches the Watchmen'
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/watchmen.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Rigo Wenning (wenning2@rz.uni-sb.de)
Förderkreis Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft - FITUG
http://www.fitug.de/