The business of encryption and the encryption of business

CSaP is working with Dr Ella McPherson at the University of Cambridge to organise a Policy Workshop on the intersection of business and encryption, and the implications for practice and policy.

The workshop takes place on 8 June in Cambridge and will be chaired by Sir Richard Mottram.

Background

The UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill, which proposes regulation for investigations conducted via communications technology, is currently open for public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny. Embedded within a high-stakes political landscape pertaining to matters of national security, the economy, and human rights, there is now a very real need to better understand how governments, corporations, and civil society are thinking about the intersection between business and encryption, and how researchers might engage with it.

The workshop will bring together a diverse range of perspectives from the research, policy, and technology sectors. Beginning with an overview of the political landscape and how to engage with it, discussion will focus on encryption and the economy, encryption and technology companies, and potential ways forward for the sector.

Key questions include:

• How are businesses using encryption, and how should they be? How is the government regulating this, and how should it be?
• What are the implications of weakened encryption for business?
• How do technology companies determine their encryption policies, and what avenues are there for non-governmental actors to engage with this? How do companies’ actions affect citizens’ rights?
• What are the economics of encryption? How is research funded, and is there a market demand from the public?
• What synergies exist between the value of encryption for the economy and the value of encryption for rights, and how might advocates best utilise them?
• Where is research urgently needed with respect to the intersection between business and encryption?

CSaP Policy Workshops