Dear Sir/Madam, I have read with interest the latest DTI proposals for the licensing of Trusted Third Parties. I am sorry to say that I do not believe the proposals to be practical. Furthermore they also appear to infringe what I consider to be a basic civil liberty - the right of every citizen to legally take whatever measures they feel are appropriate to protect their own privacy, and that of others. The reason that the proposals are impractical is that no system which mandates that private keys be disclosed to third parties will ever gain acceptance - no-one will use such a system, least of all a criminal. I would never consider disclosing my personal private keys to any third party - would you? The proposals, if enacted, would also create an entirely new form of criminal act. This would allow the prosecution of any individual who certified the authenticity of anothers public key. From a civil liberties point of view, I find this entirely unacceptable. [ I refer to section 72 of the Public Consultation Paper ] >From a law-enforcement point of view I believe that the proposals would be likely to have a negative effect - people will start encrypting normal correspondence purely to assert their right to privacy. This means that the use of encryption by criminals and terrorists will be less obvious, and less likely to arouse suspicion. A much better course would be to assert citizens right to privacy, and then encourage public spirited people to refrain from exercising it unnecessarily, on a voluntary basis. On a more positive note, many of the proposals would make good sense if the requirements for private key escrow were removed. Your sincerely, George Barwood Gloucester, UK, 22nd March 1997