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international cryptography policy survey
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Date: Fri, 6 Feb 1998 13:03:45 -0500
From: Marc Rotenberg
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FOR RELEASE: FEBRUARY 9, 1998
Contact: David L. Sobel +1-202-544-9240
GILC Releases Crypto Survey
Finds Few Countries Restrict Technologies for Privacy But Warns of New Efforts to Impose Controls
WASHINGTON - An international coalition of civil liberties organizations has released the first comprehensive review of cryptography policies around the globe. "Cryptography and Liberty: An International Survey of Encryption Policy" is based on a survey of more than two hundred countries and regions. The purpose of the survey was to determine whether countries are limiting the availability of new technologies that are used by Internet users and others to protect personal privacy.
The survey was conducted by the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC). The GILC favors the unrestricted use of cryptography to protect personal privacy. The group has urged national governments not to adopt controls on the technology.
According to the GILC report, most countries in the world do not have controls on the use of cryptography. "In the vast majority of countries, cryptography may be freely used, manufactured and sold without restriction." The report says that recent trends in cryptography policy suggest greater liberalization in the use of this technology, which was originally controlled during the Cold War for reasons of national security.
A rough breakdown of the countries into five categories -- from "Red" through "Yellow" to "Green" -- indicating how restrictive the policies toward encryption are, found that most countries are grouped toward the "Green" end of the spectrum, while a handful of countries fall in the "Red" category. Those countries are Belarus, China, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and Singapore.
The GILC report notes the "surprising" policies of the United States, given that "virtually all of the other democratic, industrial nations have few if any controls on the use of cryptography." The report suggest that the U.S. position may be explained by "the dominant role that state security agencies in the United States hold in the development of encryption policy."
But the group warns that law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and elsewhere will continue to push for an encryption "key management infrastructure" that would expand electronic surveillance of private communications. The group urges the development of a public education campaign to inform various political, labor and social groups on the benefits of and techniques for using encryption.
GILC is an international coalition of civil liberties and human rights organizations concerned with protection of political liberty in the on-line world. GILC has members in more than twenty countries, and maintains a web site at http://www.gilc.org/.
The GILC encryption survey is available on the Internet at:
http://www.gilc.org/crypto/crypto-survey.html
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Marc Rotenberg, director * +1 202 544 9240 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * +1 202 547 5482 (fax) 666 Pennsylvania Ave., SE Suite 301 * rotenberg@epic.org Washington, DC 20003 USA + http://www.epic.org
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