The clause also affects internet users and internet service providers. Internet users believe that they own the internet system and that they have great freedom. I think that their confidence in the internet is currently justified. However, if interception is to be widely practised and sometimes undertaken recklessly, it will undermine confidence in the internet. It will also damage the interests of internet service providers, who share an interest in ensuring that interception is well targeted and incapable of being used in a broad and reckless way.
Friend makes an important point.
The purpose of encryption is to add confidence to e-commerce and to internet use. It is bad enough for an internet service provider to have to allow interception that is carried out with care and due attention, although, by and large, it is understood that such interception must sometimes be undertaken by security and other services. However, it would be more worrying if interception could be handled recklessly and without the interceptor bothering to tidy up after himself or to look after the private key that he used to obtain access and any additional information that became available. Such activities would undermine confidence in the whole system of e-commerce in Britain and could encourage people to base their businesses overseas. Friend makes the right point.