I tend to think you're right and that we live in a world where key disclosure and various other methods of obtaining information from companies would be much mo

I tend to think you're right and that we live in a world where key disclosure and various other methods of obtaining information from companies would be much more common than key escrow, especially key escrow implemented in response to a specific government request. I believe affected companies/people are typically gagged from discussing or even acknowledging the existence of--for example--an NSL demanding user data in the context of PATRIOT. My understanding was that the government--typically the FBI--could send NSLs to tech companies to secretly demand a broad range of user information, and short of being Tahoe-LAFS and it being impossible to fulfill such a request or being Lavabit and asking for money to build in a backdoor to fulfill such a request, companies had to find a way to comply. In other words, my understanding was more that PATRIOT created a legal authority that allowed the government to secretly demand user information in ways that made requests difficult to challenge in court or disclose to affected users, and that the technical and other specifics of how to satisfy those requests was typically up to the companies. I'm not aware of compelled key escrow (but also wouldn't necessarily expect to be given the role of gag orders), but Lavabit might be considered an example of compelled key disclosure. At least technically, that's a very different beast.