- guardian.co.uk, Wednesday March 15 2000 09.07 GMT
Charles Clarke's view of the regulation of the investigatory powers bill's decryption powers (Letters, March 10) is "we will only prosecute if you're guilty". Internet users manage a plethora of passwords to protect email, files, and website registrations. Failure to produce any password required by any public authority for any official purpose (S.46.2.b.ii) means two years' jail. The court will convict if it believes you were lying about forgetting a password, or uncooperative in finding it.
No evidence is needed of involvement in a substantive crime. Moreover, a lifetime gagging clause prevents telling what happened on penalty of a further five years (S.50). The data protection act mandates data controllers to take adequate precautions including encryption, so they are in jeopardy either way.
Caspar Bowden
Director, Foundation for Information Policy Research
cb@fipr.org
• To crack down on the black economy, the government intends to amend the data protection act to allow access to individual bank accounts and to force private companies to release data on their employees. Can we expect the same rigour and transparency in the area of public conduct? Will Peter Mandelson's bank account be made public in the interests of mortgage ethics? Will the register of members' interests be cross-referenced with bank accounts and published on the internet?
Richard Harris
Newport, Gwent
