Hal Finney wrote:
There are two somewhat related technologies being discussed here, as Kent lists: key escrow and multiple encryption.
However, as Tim points out, really both approaches can be adapted to a Big Brother situation. If the government can force you to escrow your keys, it could equally well force you to encrypt to the FBI as an additional recipient.
Key escrow amounts to both and more. In escrowing your keys, you are doing so to the FBI, the CIA, the Department of Agriculture, Social Services, the janitor at the Key Escrow holding facility, etc. Should we put our faith in the 'good intentions' claimed by those promoting key escrow? Talk to the grandmothers whose cars were confiscated because their dear grandson left a roach in the ashtray, under authority of the laws that were supposed to thwart drug kingpins. Key escrow is needed so that grandmothers of the future, plugging the parking meters of strangers with eCa$h, cannot escape prosecution by using encryption.
I see supporting multiple recipients in the way outlined above as being an effort to *avoid* building "big brother inside". Otherwise key escrow is what many employees are going to get. If other people don't see it that way, I'd like to know.
In lean econonomical times, employees tend to get whatever they are given...end of story. If the employees are to get something other than Big Brother type of control over their work-lives, then it is up to those such as the CypherPunks and others who value privacy to promote viable options for corporations to choose from in the security area. If the only security options that a corporate manager has is no control or total control, then there will be those who will be forced by circumstances to opt for the latter, regardless of whether they find it personally distasteful. Indeed, members of the Tim C. May Corporate Sabatoge Revolutionary Committee may well find that they can sabatoge the government's evil intentions without harming their employer's position, merely by making an effort to ensure that their company's product gives the undercover Human Rights agents that have infiltrated corporate management an option to choose a product that they can customize with a view toward maintaining both company security and employee privacy. Let's face it, the government will roll over anyone who is unarmed, and have Kent issue a press release suggesting that the citizens were crying out for tank-tread marks on their backs. The solution is to provide as many workable products/solutions as possible for those who feel a need for encryption, so that they may customize their use of it according to their own inclinations and level of conscience. The government always seems to have extra munitions on hand to give to would-be dictators, it is up to disorganizations such as the CypherPunks to make certain that the citizens have the opportunity to arm themselves, as well. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html