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You have no Fifth Amendment right to encryption keys
Topic: Miscellaneous 8:25 pm EST, Mar  1, 2009

Resolved: The government can force you to decrypt files so long as it knows that you know how to decrypt them. The "logic" here is that the act of decrypting the files doesn't, in and of itself, teach the government something that they didn't already know. The content of those files might teach the government something new, but that content didn't come out of your head, and so it doesn't fall under the scope of what is protected by the 5th amendment - only the decryption key.

Bottom line: Through the magic of technology and legal sophistry people can now be compelled to provide reams of self incriminating evidence to the government while our Constitution simultaneously maintains that people will never be forced to testify against themselves.

Whatever social ill is caused by the later will obviously be caused by the former. It is, in fact, possible for the legal system to paint itself into a corner where it reaches a conclusion that undermines its own values. It has done so in this case.

You have no Fifth Amendment right to encryption keys



 
 
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