Encryption campaigners issue rallying call

NEWS Campaigners against the UK government's planned ecommerce bill have urged supporters to complete its 'Adopt an MP' programme. The group, which can be contacted at http://www.stand.org.uk, has been asking Web citizens to register to lobby their local MPs, in a bid to raise awareness of the implications of the Bill. So far, 590 MPs have been 'adopted' by concerned Web users. The remaining 62 hail mainly from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The government, which was due to publish its proposals in December, is believed to want 'third party escrow', which means that all approved ecommerce security programmes would have to store encryption keys with an intermediary firm. The Post Office, the Confederation of British Industry and the Internet Service Provider Association have all expressed opposition to this measure, as have many ecommerce companies.