Good urged the committee to confine itself to technical issues only, and arrive at a standard that could be implemented and would not be merely theoretical. Kent's opening remarks included the comment that the FIPS would only deal with crypto key recovery, not recovery of digital signatures, or with public key certification. Most of the rest of the first day was taken up with introductions and comments by the members and liaisons. The general tenor of comments from corporate representatives was that key recovery had not been important to their customers, and while they did not oppose a key recovery standard for the government, they did oppose any effort to make it mandatory or make it a requirement for export. Some differed on whether an export requirement would be a problem.
Some typical comments follow.
Oracle stated it had had no requirement for key escrow from customers and saw no need for key escrow from its customers. It supported software-only solutions, and emphasized they must have no classified content. Motorola stated it was important not to impact the performance of wireless systems. Motorola advocated an open system supporting multiple algorithms and opposed the trusted third-party concept. Microsoft said it was pragmatic, willing to provide key recovery if customers want it, but it definitely does not want it mandated, nor tied in with export licensing.