Law enforcement authorities have long relied on their ability to eavesdrop on electronic communications to investigate criminal activities. But losing their ability to conduct electronic surveillance is not the only thing they worry about. Even search warrants become worthless if seized computer records can't be deciphered. Unless there was strong suspicion of criminal activity, private messages would theoretically remain private. It may be hard to believe that the federal government, which fought a fierce cryptographic battle with the mighty Soviet Union during the Cold War, is now helpless in the face of some commercially available programs.
Many critics object to the escrow plan.
Even if we're certain that the FBI won't trample on privacy rights the way it did in the Hoover era , there's no telling whether government agencies in other countries that ignore Fourth Amendment protections may abuse their access to escrow keys. Moreover, the escrow plan clearly is not fool proof. Criminals might be able to develop their own encryption programs, according to a Cryptography Project paper by Dorothy E. Denning, a professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. Some smart criminals may use encryption programs that don't include escrow keys, he acknowledges. But others will use the escrow-designed programs if for no other reason than convenience, just as criminals today use telephones even though they know that police can bug them, he says.