FIPR: Foundation for Information Policy Research

Policy Archive

The purpose of this resource is to provide an archive of significant policy papers, discussion documents, articles, and resources as they are released and made available. Due to cataloguing problems, often these documents may not appear in any other order than chronologically, and some documents may not reside locally on the FIPR site. As often as possible, and when permission is not required, FIPR will create native copies of the files, in either html or pdf format in order to ensure that the files continue to be made available, in a convenient form.

If you believe that there may be some additional valuable materials that should appear within this archive, please contact the site administrator.

For up to date news coverage of various policy initiatives, please see the FIPR Policy Watch page.

UK Cryptography Policy Archive

NEW! Draft Electronic Commerce Bill. This is the controversial version of the bill containing Part III notices on handing over encryption keys.
piu.pdf. Encryption and Law Enforcement: Report from the Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office, May 1999 -- Added May 26
Summary of Responses to Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce. Outside of FIPR domain.
Urgent request to refer complaint to Ombudsman, Letter to Ombudsman by FIPR Director regarding the Consultation process
Letter from the DTI dated March 9th regarding the Consultation period (pdf)
Consultation Notice Period Contravenes Cabinet Office Guidelines, Letter to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by FIPR Director
Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce Consultation Paper. Outside of FIPR domain.
April 1998 DTI Secure Electronic Commerce Statement.
Summary Table of Responses to the 1997 consultation.
Labour 1997 Manifesto comments on the Information Society.. Note that the other links in this document are not effective.
1997 Consultation Paper on Licensing of Trusted Third Parties.This is the original consultation document (no longer available on DTI site) of the proposed regulations on Trusted Third Parties, under the Conservative government.
Regulatory Intent Concerning Use of Encryption on Public Networks.

Europe and ENFOPOL

New! Statewatch watches the development of Secret Europe. Reviewing previous drafts, Statewatch finds unsatisfactory rules on the freedom of information at the EU level. (Note: outside of FIPR domain).
Batch Release of Documents, November 1999

cb2gensec.html. Letter from FIPR Director to General Secretariat of the European Union requesting a selection of documents. Contents of this message describe the documents below.
99-703en.bow.al.pdf. Letter from the General Secretariat in response to FIPR's requests for documents. This also provides a good index to the subsequent documents.
07196.en9.pdf. Note from the Presidency to the Working Party on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters, regarding a Draft Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between the Member States of the European Union -- Interception of subjects on national territory using national service providers ("remote approach").
10938.en9.pdf. Note from the Presidency to the Working Party in Criminal Matters regarding a Draft Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the European Union, on the interception of telecommunications.
11157.en9.pdf. Note from the Presidency to the Article 36 Committee regarding a Draft Convention on mutual assistance in criminal matters between the Member States of the European Union, on the interception of telecommunications.
12032.en9.pdf. Note from Italian Delegation to the Policy Cooperation Working Party on a Patent application for a telecommunications interception system.
10660.en9.pdf. Note from the Presidency to the Working Party on SIS regarding the Training on encryption devices.
10667.en9.pdf. Note from German Delegation to SIS-TECH Working Group on Maintenance Contract KK Encryption Devices.
10667-r1.en9.pdf. Revised Note from German Delegation.

draftint98.pdf. Draft Council Resolution on the lawful interception of telecommunications in relation to new technologies. From the Austrian Presidency to the Police Cooperation Working Party. September 3, 1998.
draftint98rev1.pdf. Revision 1 to the Draft Council Resolution. From Austrian presidency to the Policy Cooperation Working Party. November 10, 1998.
draftint98rev2.pdf. Revision 2 to the Draft Council Resolution. From Austrian presidency to the Policy Cooperation Working Party. December 3, 1998.
draftadd99.pdf. Alterations to the Draft Council Resolution from the Presidency of the EU to the Police Cooperation Working Party. January 26, 1999.
wptok4.pdf. Report from the Working Party on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters between Member States of the EU to the K4 Committee regarding interception of satellite
cortocouncil.pdf. Subject: Draft Convention on Mutual Assistance, application of the 'remote approach' regarding interception of satellite communications. March 3, 1999.
enfopol19.html. From the Presidency of the European Union to the Police Cooperation Working Party, Subject: Interception of telecommunications -- Draft Council Resolution on new technologies. March 15, 1999
enfopol95. Outside of FIPR domain. This document is the earlier version of Enfopol98. The annex has a list of the requirements of Law Enforcement.

EU Data Protection Reports

wp17final.pdf. Working Party on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal data. Recommendation 1/99 on Invisible and Automatic Processing of Personal Data on the Internet Performed by Software and Hardware. Adopted by the Working Party on 23 February 1999.
wp16work.pdf. Working Party on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data. Working document: Processing of Personal Data on the Internet. Adopted by the Working Party on 23 February 1999.

EU General Regulation

euintercept.html or euintercept (RTF) or euintercept (PDF -- recommended). Report on the draft Council Resolution on the lawful interception of telecommunications in relation to new technologies (10951/2/98 -C4-0052/99 - 99/0906(CNS)). Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs. Draft, last updated 23 April 1999.
euecommdraft (PDF - 254KB) or euecommdraft (Word document - 327KB). Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on certain legal aspects of electronic commerce in the internal market (COM(98)0586 - C4-0020/99 - 98/0325(COD)). This document contains such ideas as: ISPs are to "keep all information necessary for the purpose of tracing and identifying providers of illegal content", and allowing for ISPs to provide "means of surveillance, which are to be rendered operational on the basis of legislation or codes of conduct", and ISP liability based on a 'knowledge' clause. Draft, last updated April 23, 1999.
euanonban.html. Adopted by the Council on the basis of Article K3, to combat child pornography on the Internet. This document discusses the banning of anonymous emails, and the requirement on ISPs to collect transactional data for up to 3 months. March 19, 1999.

Miscellaneous Files

Letter to the IETF: Members of FIPR advisory council sign a letter addressed to the Internet Engineering Task Force urging the IETF to not adopt or re-engineer protocols to allow for wiretapping. November 1999

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The Foundation for Information Policy Research is registered in England and Wales under the Companies Act 1985 as a private company limited by guarantee (No.3574631). Application for charitable status is in progress.

Last Revised: November 28 1999