The recent CDT policy post sez of Clipper III:
* Access to keys internationally "would be provided in accordance with destination country policies and bilateral understandings."
This reminds me of the understanding between CIA/NSA and their counterparts in British Intelligence. Both sides are prohibited from spying within their own countries borders but are encouraged to spy in other countries. Both would very much like to spy on their own citizens (for legitimate law encorcement/national security reasons only, of course). So, they have a simple system in place. The British spy on the American citizens that the Americans want spied on and then turn over the intercepts. The Americans do the same for the British in Britain(*). Sometimes they lie to each other or withhold material, but that's what spy organizations do all the time. If Clipper III passes and the OECD gets their member nations in line with what the American miliary wants, I predict a similar system will evolve. "Destination country policies" will allow decryption of incoming GAKked messages from non-citizens. After all, they have no rights, do they? Cooperating intelligence agencies will then exchange intercepts. Presto Chango, pesky privacy rules vanish right before your eyes! Of course this is in our best intrest, we must fight against terrorisim with all methods possible. The ends justify the means. A question: What happens if a company decided not to go along with Clipper III? Can they still ship the "old" 40-bit-style GAKware unimpeded? Or will there be a slow tightening of the rules to force compliance? The existing way of doing things depends to a large degree on a set of "common practice" which the NSA doesn't have written down. For example you won't find the 40 bit limit written anywhere in ITAR, and if you want to export something that's already been approved elsewhere (i.e. another implementation of SSL) you still have to go through the approval process. (*) this comes from "The War Aginst the Jews" which is worth reading. Sorry I can't find my copy at the moment, maybe someone who's got it handy will provide authors/ISBN. Capsule review: covers government dirty dealing from the early 1900s on, mostly British and American. Concentrates on Jews and Israel of course but they seem to have been the brunt (sometimes the instigator) of a lot of the dirty pool that governments have played. -- Eric Murray ericm@lne.com ericm@motorcycle.com http://www.lne.com/ericm PGP keyid:E03F65E5 fingerprint:50 B0 A2 4C 7D 86 FC 03 92 E8 AC E6 7E 27 29 AF