It has been brought up on the Cypherpunks mailing list that Microsoft is proposing to include public-key escrow as a *built-in* "function" of future products - Chicago and Daytona have been specifically mentioned. Is this, in fact, correct? If so, what constraints or limitations are there on it? Is it an optional capability, and if so, what means are there for disabling (or better still, completely removing) it? What organization(s) does Microsoft propose to use as the escrow agent(s) if such public-key escrow is implemented? What would be the system used (RIPEM, RSA, etc)? If not an existing algorithm, would the algorithm(s) be made public? What would be the key size of any such algorithm? I would appreciate any and all information you could provide regarding this _very_ serious matter. Please note that this message has also been sent to the Cypherpunks mailing list; I am quite sure that the subscribers there would be most interested in your answers (or failure to answer). I will also take the liberty of forwarding an unedited copy of your response to this message to the Cypherpunks mailing list. David K. Merriman merriman@metronet.com Finger merriman@metronet.com for PGP2.6ui/RIPEM public keys/fingerprints.