InformationWeek

July 7, 1999

U.S. Dictating U.K. Policy On E-Commerce?

A U.K.-based Internet civil-liberties group has posted documents on the Web that it says prove the British government's controversial E-commerce policies were driven by U.S. government interests.

The documents, obtained under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, are instructions to U.S. Ambassador David Aaron regarding a trip to London and Paris in November 1996. "The objective of your mission," says one document, "is to foster the international cooperation needed to achieve the goals of the Clinton Administration ... to promote the worldwide use and development of strong encryption products and a global key recovery architecture."

The Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties site also attacks the U.K. Cabinet Office and Department of Trade and Industry for denying taking U.S. direction.

A DTI spokesman says the department had never claimed discussions did not take place. "They did and are continuing," he said. "But bilateral discussions with the U.S. and a few other countries is rather different from international coordination on a global basis."

--Madeleine Acey, TechWeb