wiki log of #dragonfly irc channel

[Erik Wikström]

On 2007-03-09 02:28, Helge Rohde wrote:
On Friday 09 March 2007 00:57, Martin P. Hellwig wrote:
Helge Rohde wrote:
<cut>
> Which is precisly why i always envyid that windoze partition encryption
> thingy, cant remember the name now, but it provides 2 keys, one will open
> the (actual) container and another one will open another encrypted
> container with all legal and perfectly harmless files. That way they
> cannot crack down on you for destruction of evidence (what second
> password ? häh? no idea what you mean!). But afaik theres is no such
> thing on any of the BSD systems. Which is sad, because -as you point out
> pretty precisely - it refutes most of the points file/HD encryption could
> be useful for - They will just order you to give them the PW as soon as
> they find an encrypted Partition/File.
>
> regards,
> Helge
In most western legal systems you are not enforced to participate in
gathering evidence against yourself. Though it could be enforced that
you are not allowed to alter current situation which can influence
evidence against you. In short with a warrant they may be allowed to
search your home and take your computer as evidence but they may not
enforce you to tell them your pass phrase, that contradicts with the
"You have the right to remain silent" thing :-)
>
Yeah, i would have thought so too. But apparently they do bend their rules 
when the see the need, atleast in Germany they *can* put you into jail until 
you tell them the passphrase and i have heard similar from other european 
countries. I believe the reasoning goes along the lines of: they have an 
urgent suspicion that there is evidence against you (the encrypted 
partition ), so they can put you into 'Beugehaft' (= coercive detention) 
until you stop hiding the evidence and cooperate with the authorities. The 
mentioned two-container system has prooven to be an effective countermeasure 
(well, atleast until now). 
As long as they do not suspec you to be a terrorist I doubt that they 
can lock you up more than a month or two unless they have other evidence 
than those they suspect to be on the disk. To do otherwise would be an 
crime against the human rights

--
Erik Wikström