If Cops Don't Know What You Encrypted, They Can't Make You Decrypt It

forbes.com

10 points·finnw··3 comments

While I agree with this ruling in terms of privacy protection and right against self-incrimination, I believe that this effectively means that, for example, all TrueCrypt containers can never be forcibly decrypted.

For example: if you have 13_year_old_girl.jpg.pgp, it could be reasonably argued that the content of the encrypted file is "known," and decryption can be forced. If, however, you have a TrueCrypt partition called "images," there is plausible deniability due to the very nature of a TrueCrypt container - so everything within would be considered protected.

It's an interesting case, with serious ramifications - for example, if a hacker stole source code and put it in a TrueCrypt container and was subsequently raided, it would be significantly harder to prosecute without incriminating evidence.

I think the premise "if they have no clue what's on my HDD, then they have no right to force me to decrypt it" is a good one. Anything else is an invitation for abuse.

It's the same with police car searches. You have the right to refuse a search, if they don't have probable cause, because even you might not know if there is something in there that could get you arrested. If that works for car searches, I think it should work just the same for encryption.

This is a good article on it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-morgan/5-reasons-you-sho...

In England we have Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) :

(http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/contents_

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Pow...)

And does this apply to people crossing borders?

(https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/05/protecting-yourself-su...)

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