Practical Accountability of Secret Processes

[lainon]

https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/697

[woliveirajr]

> balance the competing goals of (1) secrecy, so the target of an investigation does not discover and sabotage it, and (2) accountability, to assure the public that surveillance powers are not misused or abused.

Interesting problem, but seems that signing and encrypting the order with some court key would be enought: publish it encrypted, and when the relevant time has passed and the information can be disclosed, use the private key to reveal it. Isn't that ?

[emiliobumachar → woliveirajr]

That would solve part of the problem. But publishing a hash would solve the same part without any need for key management.

[emiliobumachar]

I think the low hanging fruit would be making all gag orders expire in a year or less. Long investigations can issue new, overlapping gag orders.

As it is, good luck inquiring about the status of an investigation you're forbidden to talk about with anyone.