Re: [Sks-devel] keyserver.pramberger.at terminating

[Johan van Selst]

Peter Pramberger wrote:
> bad news today, at least for me:
> Several weeks ago I got a complaint from a user getting his old PGP key
> removed from my keyserver. He got the usual answer in such cases, but
> unfortunately wasn't accepting it. Instead he insisted on his right to get the
> key removed, in accordence to the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG 2000).

This is bad news indeed. I don't live in Austria, but I'm sure many
countries, including mine, have similar legislation. And I don't believe
there's a general technical answer to this. The PGP keyservers basically
use an 'add once and remember forever' principle. Now, if I remember
correctly, sks has a 'drop' feature to remove individual keys from a
keyserver, but I not sure that this permanently deletes certain keys
(it might be added again with later manual or automatic updates).

It may be useful to have a permanent local blacklist for individual
servers, that lists key-IDs or even email addresses that should not be
tracked in the PGP key database. I suppose this would be sufficient to
comply with the legislation regarding similar complaints, but I'm no
legal expert either.


Regards,
Johan

pgp_CrfPT21d8.pgp
Description: PGP signature