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British Conservatives Say They'll Block Bill to Allow Monitoring of E-Mail

UK Shadow (opposition) Home Secretary Anne Widdecombe said Tuesday that the Conservatives would seek to block the bill on its third reading, unless the "burden of proof" aspect of the proposals were not changed.

The bill, which is going through its second reading (debate) this week, has been in the legal pipeline in the UK for almost 18 months and mirrors similar proposed legislation in the US which has since been placed on a back burner by the Clinton administration.

In essence, the bill bring the UK's current Interception of Communications Act, which dates from the 1980s, into the world of the Internet and digital communications.

The proposed law sets down rules which the police and the UK security services must adhere to if they require any computer user to hand over the decryption codes used on his/her e-mail or similar transmitted data -- at the formal request of the police or government security agencies.

Widdecombe had said earlier that section 49 of the bill is, however, unacceptable to the Conservative party, which claims that the section enables law enforcement agencies to serve notices demanding that intercepted e-mails be decrypted, as well as requiring users to prove they do not have the pass key.

The Conservatives appear to be less than impressed with this aspect of the bill, which requires Internet users to prove they have lost or forgotten their pass key, to the relevant authorities.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, www.newsbytes.com.

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