This news is a few days old but is critically important, none the less. A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that the right not to divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase is protected by the 5th amendment. A pseudo-anonymous blogger points out the significance:

If this becomes a precedent, it will be distinctly different from European countries such as the U.K, where a new law provides for up to two years of jail time simply for refusing to reveal a key.

As people’s digital storage increasingly becomes an integrated part of their identity, the right to keep certain data private will become increasingly important. The right to keep encryption keys private will increasingly mean the freedom to keep certain thoughts private, whether they are stored in wetware or digital form.

Click here to read the story on News.com Since the ruling, the DOJ has refused to answer any questions regarding their stance on citizens being forced to reveal encryption keys.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Politics, Technology, Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.