Despite claims that it is still on target to introduce its Electronic Commerce Bill to Parliament next month, the UK government is still refusing to be drawn on how it will address the controversial issue of key escrow. Michael Wills, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) junior minister responsible for the Bill said yesterday that key escrow will not feature in the Bill, because of the strength of civil rights and commercial objections. But he would not say what alternatives the government is considering, even though it is now four weeks since it closed a consultation process on the issue, which the DTI said generated more than 250 responses.
Key escrow has been thorn in the side of the DTI’s e-commerce policy efforts since 1997, when it first proposed a trusted third party scheme licencing scheme, which would have seen law enforcement and security forces retain access to encrypted material via key escrow. The scheme was strongly opposed on grounds of civil rights and cost, forcing the government to retreat until March, when the DTI challenged industry to recommend a more palatable alternative. The request for suggestions came with a stern warning from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that if industry did not come with an alternative, key escrow would be carried forward.
Since the April 1 deadline for proposals, Nigel Hickson, the head of DTI’s Information’s Security policy Group on the proposed e-commerce legislation, says the vast majority of responses accepted the need for measures to assist law enforcement, but called for government not to introduce legislation that would overburden industry with requirements such as key escrow. Hickson said the DTI will be revealing the results of its analysis of the alternatives in May.
Casper Bowden, the founder and director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIRP), believes that the overwhelming industry opinion seems to be that the government proposals showed little understanding of the technological issues involved in key escrow and the level to which it would burden industry. Many of the bodies that have submitted suggestions to the DTI advise that the government should remove the controversial law enforcement aspects of the bill leaving a streamlined version containing only the commercial aspects, such as giving digital signatures equal weighting to hand-written signatures in the eyes of the law. Bowden explains the argument is that the controversial law enforcement aspects, such as the key escrow, would be better introduced in the Home Office update to the 1985 Interception of Communication Act expected in Autumn next year, thereby allowing a longer period in which to arrive at a formula that would not offend civil rights groups.
