LITTLE BROTHER INSIDE

[hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)]

   Why not just use an encrypted partition. I guess then it is a problem of
   not being persuaded to reveal the key. What laws/rights does the user have 
   as to revealing the key ? 

If the court order you to produce something, you have to or be in
comptempt.  The court will not order you to testify against yourself.
The court can make you show up with the electronic storage that holds
your keys, for example, because this is a physical device.  So the
issue hinges upon the question of whether uttering a passphrase which
makes the device usable counts as giving testimony.  

Is explaining how something works (aka giving a passphrase) testimony?
Quite possibly not.  The explanation or passphrase is not
incriminating by itself; it says nothing and claims nothing.

One solution to this is to give the passphrase (or other access
information) to someone who won't give it back to you if you are under
duress, investigation, court order, etc.  One would desire that this
entity be in a jurisdiction other than where an investigation might
happen.

Eric