In a policy paper of March 1999 the Ministries pointed at the need of 'lawful access' and announced that, if voluntary agreements on this subject were not possible, the government would introduce legislation that would force them to do so. If industry does not want to cooperate in an active way in the development of the possibility of lawful access, the government will consider legislative initiatives to fulfil the need of lawful access. According to the document, law enforcement and intelligence services want to get access to the communication in 'clear language'. They don't want to get hold of the encryption keys, unless 'it is the only way to get access to encrypted communication'. The agencies also want to listen in to encrypted communication in real-time.
Access has to be possible without the co-operation or knowledge of the user.
The coordinating committee recognises that TTP's have problems with providing lawful access. It is doubtful if TTP's are willing to give lawful access, as companies and consumers will have little faith in their services if they know the TTP is able to read their communications and deliver it to government. Companies have already indicated that the founding of a good TTP infrastructure in the Netherlands is not possible if Dutch TTP's are forced to give lawful access, while other TTP's don't have this obligation. But the Technical Working Party decided to recommend nevertheless that TTP's must choose architecture, which make lawful access possible. It is called 'obligatory self regulation'.