Ecommerce Bill will 'undermine development of ecommerce'

A leading UK privacy rights group has added its voice to the growing criticism of the government's draft Electronic Communications Bill. It claims that the proposed legislation infringes civil liberties and threatens the development of ecommerce.

The group, Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties (UK), believes that although the original key escrow framework has been removed from the Bill, individuals' privacy is still threatened. It says the proposals will allow police to demand access to encryption keys if they can prove there is sufficient reason.

The draft proposals also make it the responsibility of the user to prove they haven't got a key if the police suspect them of withholding it. Individuals who can't prove their innocence could face imprisonment.

The campaigning group says users should be required to decrypt messages for the police if there is sufficient reason - but not to hand over the key.

Dr Brian Gladman, technical policy advisor at Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties, said: "The decryption orders proposed in the Bill will have a serious detrimental impact on civil rights in the UK. Honest citizens may be forced to hand over keys on which their security and privacy depend. Worse still, they could even be imprisoned for withholding a key that they never had and know nothing whatsoever about," he claimed.

Gladman added that the proposals are likely to undermine confidence in electronic commerce instead of promoting its rapid development.

The criticisms are expressed in an open letter sent by Gladman to BT and IBM. Both companies were close advisers to the government during the drafting of the Bill.

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