Declan, what would you think if the actual keepers of the keys, so to speak, were the courts, such as the Administrative Office of the US Courts? That would at least seem to reduce a lot of the possible privacy concerns. One has the sense that once they get into the hands of the varius agencies, they'll get back out.

It has no real effect. The problem is that corporations have very good reason to expect governments to abuse key escrow. The Nixon administration showed that the President of the US was capable of ordering the burglary of his opponents offices. Since the President appoints the Supreme court this is a pretty direct demonstration that nobody can be trusted. The concerns for foreign corporations are even greater. France openly boasts about its commercial espionage. It also murders its political opponents by planting bombs on civilian ships. Any foreign corporation operating in that company must expect a concerted effort to disclose its trade secrets to its French competitors. People in the security industry are paid to be paranoid, to reduce risk to the lowest possible. If your security model does not trust the CEO of the company concerned absolutely why should minor officials of the US government be trusted? Phill