[HiTech RedNeck]

But do you have to furnish them the wherewithal to spy?

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

[Jack Hydrazine]

The surveillance net on America is quite staggering.

[LibWhacker]

That’s a cool idea. I like that.

[SlargTarg]

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

Beat me to it.

[Squantos]

That is true....

[Irishguy]

Exactly my thoughts. Some entranapeur is going to develop this. The creation of a system minus directories you specified.

[PapaBear3625]

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

The very first thing the feds always do is make a bit-level copy of the hard drive (by taking the drive out of the machine and putting it on their own equipment). If you then enter an "erase all" pass-phrase which results in changes to the drive, they immediately charge you with obstruction of justice, restore the drive from the backup, and tell you to try again.

[kevkrom]

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

Or something in a similar vein -- have an obviously encrypted portion of the disk, but hide the actual sensitive data via steganography.

In the encrypted volume, put sensitive but non-incriminating data (such as tax returns, bank info, commonly used [but outdated] list of passwords, etc.) to justify its need to have been encrypted.

More along the idea you mentioned, I've seen programs for iOS devices (and I'm sure they exist elsewhere) where it uses a pair of passwords: a "dummy" password that unlocks a "safe" set of files and a "real" password that unlocks the real hidden content.

[zeugma]

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

That already exists.

The government really wants to be able to compel you to give up your keys.  Personally, I think we ought to tell them to bugger off.

[ctdonath2]

Already exists (dunno about PGP, but...)

TrueCrypt can be set up with “plausible deniability” http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability where an encrypted volume may have another encrypted volume hidden therein, and write operations on the former can encroach on and destroy the latter.

Convincing the adversary that you’ve handed over the key and revealed everything, however, may be a different problem. Beware “rubber hose cryptology”.

[Still Thinking]

I could see the creation of “chameleon” PGP systems that when brought up with one passphrase have all the naughty bits, but when brought up with another one have naughty bits permanently erased.

Actually someone already sells that. Not PGP brand, can't remember who it is.