Cyberspace Electronic Security Act

The Cyberspace Electronic Security Act of 1999 (CESA) allows the government to collect the keys used for encryption. Proposed by the Clinton administration, the first version allowed law enforcement to use secret monitoring techniques to collect and access encrypted information. Although those provisions to the act were later stricken from it, law enforcement still retained a lot of flexibility when conducting investigations that had to do with such information. The CESA also started discussions on how far law enforcement could go when trying to detect criminal activity. After civil liberty groups voiced their opposition, the administration eventually moved away from the bill.