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The United States is leading the international charge to implement a key-escrow system.
BBC: Security and law enforcement: the government view
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The system, called key-escrow, would give police and other law enforcement bodies wide-ranging powers to intercept e-mail, read confidential documents and tap into systems, without monitoring by the courts.
BBC: Security and law enforcement: the government view
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But in January, the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, agreed with other EU justice ministers to consider a key-escrow policy, which would allow law enforcement agencies access to the computer codes used to scramble information.
BBC: UK Government dithers on encryption regulation
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He says a policy of key escrow - placing the keys to encrypted data with Trusted Third Parties - would have to be global to be effective and there is no prospect of this.
BBC: Encryption: the expert's view
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In addition, the amendment makes no mention of controls on the domestic use of encryption products and does not include any language covering encryption-key recovery or key escrow.
CNN: Congress targets exported encryption tech
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At the time, the federal government was also pushing hard to get companies to add so-called "key escrow" type technologies to their encryption products so that law enforcement could obtain access to encrypted data on demand.
CNN: Technology - Security flaw discovered in Network Associates PGP software
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For instance, requiring encryption software and hardware makers to hold a decoding key in "key escrow" is the equivalent of asking a bank to hold an extra set of safe-deposit-box keys.
CNN: Rewriting the fourth amendment