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This section of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) will deal with issues in relation to Open Government Code of Conduct requests and issues related to the devlopment of a Freedom of Information Act in the UK. This section will also reveal information and documents obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act.
Please cite these pages as: Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), "Freedom of Information Files," at http://www.cyber-rights.org/foia/. Last updated: September 2001
Documents obtained under the Open Government Code of Practice in relation to the activities of the Home Office Internet Task Force on Child Protection - Added September 2001: Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) released further information in relation to the activities of the Internet Task Force on Child Protection which was set up by the Home Office in March 2001. The released documents provide information that has been received from the Home Office under the Open Government Code of Practice process. A letter from the Home Office to the members of the legal profession and civil liberty bodies request comments in relation to the preliminary proposals (New Criminal offence & Civil Order) developed by the Scrutiny of the Criminal law Subgroup of the Home Office Internet Task Force on Child Protection in August 2001. The letter suggests that comments are requested by 28 September, 2001 by the Sentencing and Offences Unit of the Home Office.
Internet
Detective: Censorship, National Security, and Freedom of
Information - Added December 2000.
A case of censorship or protection of national security?
Read the related documents and the Ombudsman's decision and judge
yourself.
Documents received under the US FOIA in
relation to Ambassador David Aaron's visit to UK - These
documents received by the Electronic Privacy Information Center
and passed to Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) include
details of David Aaron's visit to London in December 1996 to
discuss the UK-USA encryption policies. Apart from the details of
Mr Aaron's div style="display:none">polo ralph lauren custom fit visit, the documents show ...... It should be noted
that this visit took place just before the launch of the March
1997 DTI Consultation Paper on Licensing of Trusted Third
Parties for the Provision of Encryption Services.
Open Government Files on UK Government
Encryption Policy - This section deals with a request made
under the Code of Practice on Access
to Government Information through the DTI in relation to UK
Government's policy on encryption on September 1, 1998. A
summary of the exchange of letters with the DTI in relation to
this request together with the scanned images of some of the
letters received are included in this section. This request did
not reveal anything apart from references to "a whole range
of papers (in up to 15 separate files)" which would be
relevant to our request. A similar request under the Code to the
Home Office received a "no response" since December
1998.
FOIA Related Links - These pages include information about how to request documents from the UK Government under the Open Government Code of Practice on Access to Government Information together with links to policy initiatives in relation to the Freedom of Information Bill.
Following the publications of these pages and documents by Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK), the following written questions and answers appeared in Hansard. House of Commons, Hansard Written Answers for 19 Oct 1999 (pt 13), (Encryption) Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have held meetings with the United States Special Envoy for Cryptography, Ambassador David Aaron, since 1 January 1998, on (i) encryption and (ii) other issues; what were the dates and locations of each meeting; and if any other (a) British and (b) United States Government Departments took part in each meeting. [93865] Ms Hewitt: Ministers have not met with Ambassador Aaron. Officials from the Department of Trade and Industry, the Cabinet Office and the Government's technical advisers on information security, the Communications Electronic Security Group met Ambassador Aaron on 4 June 1998 in London, on 3 September 1998 in Ottawa and 3 December 1998 in Vienna. On the United States side, the meetings involved officials from the Department of State, Commerce, Justice and Defense, and from the National Security Council. Each of these meetings related to discussions about national and international policies on encryption and possible changes to export controls on cryptographic goods under the Wassenaar Agreement for Export Controls on Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods. Each of these meetings were multinational meetings involving a number of other countries.
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have held meetings with the United States Special Envoy for Cryptography, Ambassador David Aaron, since 1 January 1998 on (i) encryption and (ii) other issues; what were the dates and locations of each meeting; and what other (1) British and (2) United States Government Departments took part in each meeting. [94011] Marjorie Mowlam: Cabinet Office Ministers have not met Ambassador Aaron. Cabinet Office officials have met Ambassador Aaron on four occasions since 1 January 1998. Each of these meetings related to discussions about national and international policies on encryption and possible changes to export controls on cryptographic goods under the Wassenaar Arrangement for Export Controls on Conventional Arms and Dual Use Goods. The dates and locations of these meetings were as follows: 18 May 1998, London; 4 June 1998, Stockholm; 3 September 1998, Ottawa; 3 December 1998, Vienna. The meetings on 4 June, 3 September and 3 December were also attended by officials from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Government's technical advisers on information security, the Communications Electronic Security Group. On the United States side, the meetings involved officials from the Departments of State, Commerce, Justice and Defense, and from the National Security Council. With the exception of the 18 May meeting, which was a bilateral visit by Ambassador Aaron to the United Kingdom, these contacts were multinational meetings involving a number of other countries. Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office when officials from her Department attended meetings of the United States Department of Commerce's Technical Advisory Committee to Develop Federal Information Processing Standard for the Federal Key Management Infrastructure. [94010] Mr. Ian McCartney: No officials from the Cabinet Office have attended meetings of this committee. |
Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) Press Release
"UK Crypto Policy Secrets Revealed"
06 July, 1999
LEEDS - Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) today launched a new section called Freedom of Information through its web pages at http://www.cyber-rights.org/foia. To inaugurate this new section, we are revealing the secretive process in which UK Government policy was influenced by the US Government between November 1996 and January 1997 just before the March 1997 DTI Consultation paper was launched.
The documents that are released today detail the US Crypto Czar David Aaron’s visit to the UK and these are obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act by the Washington DC based Electronic Privacy Information Center (http://www.epic.org).
Yaman Akdeniz, Director of Cyber Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) stated that:
"In the absence of a Freedom of Information Act, so far, it has not been possible to obtain any documents from the DTI under the Open Government Code of Conduct in relation to the formulation of UK Government policy on encryption. The Aaron files clearly show that the UK government policy was closely co-ordinated with the US despite the claims of a recent Cabinet Office paper which stated that ‘there has been remarkably little co-ordination of policy on encryption matters’ at an international level."
Dr Brian Gladman, Technology Policy Adviser for Cyber Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) stated that:
"These documents expose just a few of the many international exchanges undertaken in the development of government encryption policies. This is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and raises the serious concern that the recent UK Government claim that ‘there has been remarkably little co-ordination of policy on encryption matters’ is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public about the true nature and real intent of UK Government actions in this field."
"These documents show that Ambassador David Aaron played the role of a high-tech Johnny Appleseed, travelling the world in First Class to promote US Government key escrow and surveillance policies. The UK is one of the few countries that Aaron was welcomed and the US policy adopted," added David Banisar, Senior Fellow for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based public interest group that sued the US government in 1998 under the US Freedom of Information Act to obtain the documents.
Notes for the Editors
This press release will be available at http://www.cyber-rights.org/foia and this new section launched today will reveal original documents and exchange of letters in relation to the UK Government policy on encryption.
The Cyber Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) letter to The Right Honourable Tony Blair, PC, MP, The Prime Minister (June 14, 1999) in relation to UK Government encryption policy is at http://www.cyber-rights.org/reports/blair-letter.htm
For a list of Cyber Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) reports and papers see http://www.cyber-rights.org/reports
Contact Information
Yaman Akdeniz, Director of Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties
(UK)
Telephone: 0498-865116, dial +44 498 865116 if you are abroad.
E-mail: lawya@cyber-rights.org
Dr Brian Gladman, Technology Policy Adviser,
Cyber Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)
Telephone: 01905 748990, dial +44 1905 748990 if you are abroad.
E-mail: brg@cyber-rights.org
David Banisar, Senior Fellow,
Electronic Privacy Information Center,
Telephone: +1 202-544-9240
E-mail: Banisar@epic.org