Escrow time line draws fire from think-tank

The government's decision last week to drop key escrow -- which would give law enforcement agencies access to data sent over the Internet -- leaves the e-commerce bill as a "dead limb of an old policy which should be chopped off," according to Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.

Bowden believes the government is "in a terrible tangle" over the bill and has lodged a formal complaint with Secretary of Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers, over the time given for the IT industry to respond to the consultation document -- Building Confidence in Electronic Commerce.

Full story to follow