PGP "master keys"

[Steven M. Bellovin]

In an article on disk encryption
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/26/pgp_infosec/), the following
paragraph appears:

	BitLocker has landed Redmond in some hot water over its insistence
	that there are no back doors for law enforcement. As its
	encryption code is open source, PGP says it can guarantee no back
	doors, but that cyber sleuths can use its master keys if
	neccessary.

What is a "master key" in this context?

		--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb

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