[2590] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
GILC/EFC: Int'l Human Rights Concerns About Privacy and Crypto
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (djones@insight.dcss.McMaster.CA (D)
Tue Apr 28 00:42:34 1998
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 13:37:49 -0300
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: djones@insight.dcss.McMaster.CA (David Jones) (by way of M Taylor <mctaylor@mta.ca>)
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
ELECTRONIC FRONTIER CANADA (EFC) --- PRESS RELEASE
GLOBAL INTERNET LIBERTY CAMPAIGN (GILC)
(For immediate release --- Monday, April 27, 1998)
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URL = http://www.efc.ca/pages/pr/efc-pr.27apr98.html
International Human Rights Organizations
Express Privacy Concerns About
Canadian Cryptography Policy
OTTAWA -- Twenty-three civil liberty and human rights organizations from
around the world have signed a letter urging the Canadian government to
liberalize its cryptography policy, instead of tightening restrictions, as
it is currently considering. The letter was delivered to the Task Force on
Electronic Commerce at a roundtable meeting hosted by Industry Canada.
A copy of the letter is available on the web at:
http://www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/gilc-letter.20apr98.html
Encryption, or encoding, which allows computer files and digital
communications to be scrambled when stored or transmitted, and later
descrambled using a secret key, is widely recognized as essential for
protecting privacy in today's wired world. It is a technology that enables
secure electronic commerce for business and private e-mail for personal
communications. It can even be incorporated into new digital PCS cellular
telephones to prevent snoops from listening in.
The organizations signing the letter, members of the Global Internet Liberty
Campaign, highlighted the importance of cryptography for protecting freedom
of expression, freedom of association, and the right to privacy.
The letter comes in response to a February 1998 Industry Canada report
entitled "A Cryptography Policy Framework for Electronic Commerce", which
listed possible scenarios for government regulation of cryptographic
hardware and software. Dr. David Jones, president of Electronic Frontier
Canada, this country's leading online civil liberties group, delivered the
letter in Ottawa last week at a meeting with Industry Canada.
Advocates for government restrictions on the use of encryption technology
include the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP), the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Security and Intelligence
Service (CSIS), and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), all of
which were represented at the Ottawa meeting, where they expressed concern
about losing the ability to eavesdrop on email or voice communications when
conducting investigations.
"Law enforcement agencies must be provided a means by which they can decrypt
information they gather", said RCMP Commissioner Philip Murray at the
meeting, and in the RCMP's written submission to Industry Canada.
"Canadians have the right to speak in codes", counters Jones. "We have the
right to speak in languages the police don't understand, whether it is
Inuktitut or Cree or some other digital language."
Concerned about the use of secret codes they can't crack, law enforcement
officials have asked the government to consider a requirement that all
secret keys be made stored in a manner that police can gain access, with
court authorization, without the key owner knowing about it.
"This is comparable to asking the front-door keys for 10 million Canadian
homes be deposited at the local police station, 'just in case' there was a
need to execute a search warrant", says Jeffrey Shallit, vice-president of
Electronic Frontier Canada. "Canadians are right to reject this as
unreasonably intrusive."
'Mandatory key recover', as the controversial policy option is called,
"would create an unnecessary risk that criminals might gain access to
encryption keys", says Jones, "and this would undermine public trust in
financial transactions conducted electronically."
"The deployment of a general key-recovery-based encryption infrastructure to
meet law enforcement's stated requirements will result in substantial
sacrifices in security", cautions a report published last year by leading
cryptographers and computer scientists. (see "Risks" paper below)
Electronic Frontier Canada is a non-profit educational organization devoted
to ensuring the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms are preserved as new computing, communication, and information
technologies emerge.
The list of organizations that signed the letter follows.
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l'Association pour la Promotion d'Internet en Polynésie Française (l'APIPF)
http://www.tahiti.net/apipf/apipf.html
Associazione per la Libertà nella Comunicazione Elettronica Interattiva
(ALCEI) (Electronic Frontiers Italy)
http://vivaldi.nexus.it/altri/alcei/
Campaign Against Censorship of the Internet in Britain (CACIB)
http://www.liberty.org.uk/cacib/
Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
http://www.cdt.org/
Citoyens et Internautes Tous Associés pour la Défense des Liberté (CITADEL)
(Electronic Frontier France)
http://www.citadeleff.org
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
http://www.cpsr.org/
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties, UK
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/law/pgs/yaman/yaman.htm
Derechos Human Rights (DHR)
http://www.derechos.org/
Digital Citizens Foundation Netherlands (DB-NL)
http://www.db.nl/
EF-Texas
http://www.eftexas.org
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA)
http://www.efa.org.au/
Electronic Frontier Canada (EFC)
http://www.efc.ca/
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
http://www.eff.org/
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
http://www.epic.org/
Equipo Nizkor, Spain
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft (FITUG), Germany
http://www.fitug.de/
Fronteras Electrónicas España (FrEE), Spain
http://www.arnal.es/free/
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
http://www.hrw.org
Index on Censorship
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/
Internet Society (ISOC)
http://www.isoc.org/
NetAction
http://www.netaction.org/
Privacy International
http://www.privacy.org/pi/
Quintessenz, Austria
http://www.quintessenz.at
-30-
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EFC Contact Information:
Electronic Frontier Canada
Dr. David Jones, djones@efc.ca
phone: (905) 525-9140 ext. 24689, fax: (905) 546-9995
Dr. Jeffrey Shallit, shallit@efc.ca
phone: (519) 888-4804, fax: (519) 885-1208
Dr. Richard Rosenberg, rosen@efc.ca
phone: (604) 822-4142, fax: (604) 822-5485
Electronic Frontier Canada's, online archives:
URL: http://www.efc.ca
EFC Fax: (519) 745-0941 (if busy, call (519) 743-8754)
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Additional Conact Information:
Helen McDonald
Director General, Policy Development,
Task Force on Electronic Commerce
addr: Industry Canada, 20th Floor, 300 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario,
K1A 0H5
phone: (613) 957-8837
email: crypto@ic.gc.ca
Marc Rotenberg
Director, Electronic Privacy Information Center
addr: 666 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Suite 301, Washington, DC, 20003
phone: (202) 544-9240
email: rotenberg@epic.org
web: http://www.epic.org
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Related Documents:
GILC/EFC Letter to Industry Canada (20apr98)
( http://www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/gilc-letter.20apr98.html )
This letter was prepared by EFC and signed by 23 civil liberty and
human rights organizations around the world who are members of the
Global Internet Liberty Campaign.
EFC Golden Key Campaign
( http://www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/golden-key.html )
This web page contains links to additional information related to
cryptography policy in Canada.
The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow,and Trusted Third-Party Encryption
( http://www.crypto.com/key_study/report.shtml )
This is a very influential paper by some of the top cryptographers in
the world: Hal Abelson, Ross Anderson, Steven M. Bellovin, Josh
Benaloh, Matt Blaze, Whitfield Diffie, John Gilmore, Peter G. Neumann,
Ronald L. Rivest, Jeffrey I. Schiller, Bruce Schneier.
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EFC
