One of the agencies that signed up was the Customs Service. It wants to speed the processing of trucks driving across the border. Other agencies dipping a toe in the key recovery waters include the Patent and Trademark Office, the Social Security Administration, and the Small Business Administration. Imagine, hypothetically, that the FBI wants Americans to buy, say, pens that transmit everything written to the Feds. The FBI claims this will reduce terrorism, and promises agents will follow lawful procedure when they want to read what you're writing.
Problem is, nobody buys the pens.
A nettled FBI resorts to coercing federal agencies to purchase them. Add the Commerce Department, of all places, to the list of agencies that really would rather not deal with key recovery. Recently it found out firsthand the headaches involved in setting it up. I asked Sargent why he needed to use a complicated key recovery system when he could just keep a copy of the Commerce Department's private key in a safe instead. BXA is one of the administration's spokesmen in that regard.