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Ron Wyden Introduces Bill To Ban FBI 'Backdoors' In Tech Products
An anonymous reader sends this report from The Verge: Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is trying to proactively block FBI head James Comey's request for new rules that make tapping into devices easier. The Secure Data Act would ban agencies from making manufacturers alter their products to allow easier surveillance or search, something Comey has said is necessary as encryption becomes more common and more sophisticated. "Strong encryption and sound computer security is the best way to keep Americans' data safe from hackers and foreign threats," said Wyden in a statement. "It is the best way to protect our constitutional rights at a time when a person's whole life can often be found on his or her smartphone."
a person's whole life can often be found on his or her smartphone.
If someone has an iPhone you just know they're gay
When NSA was set up, it was to SPY on FOREIGN powers, while securing our own equipment. Now, it is bothersome that backdoors are being built into personal level equipment.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
...because I can think of one that's going to do it nomatter WHAT the law says...
"You know, that's a nice life you have; drop the bill and none of your illegal activities come out."
All congresscritters are criminals, so this won't take long to kill. :(
You can't vote out the Gestapo.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
Wyden's proposal says agencies shouldn't be allowed to "make" manufacturers put in a back door. How about "convincing"? All big corporations are on the same side as the "agencies"--and the US Senate, for that matter.
Back doors are not a secret!
Phil Zimmermann's PGP already put crypto in the hands of the masses. It was a little cumbersome to use, even back in the '90s, but it's there. Anybody who wants good crypto, even on their phone, can probably find it and set it up. That group especially includes what I will call dedicated professional terrorists. FBI tapping into vanilla off-the-shelf iPhones will not catch them. This bill is about the common tech carried by the common man.
never ask a question you don't want to know the answer to
All of this would not be necessary, if existing laws would be enforced the way they were intended to. What is here not to understand " ... secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects".
The moment you start slicing and dicing and qualifying, the next moment another interpretation will be drafted that allows to bypass any new law.
The truth is people were spied all the times, but when it became easier to do so due to the technologies and the scale of spying became difficult to hide, then the new laws were carved out, "while the freedoms are protected".
Key lesson: calling the the laws in a manner opposite to what it does.
Patriot act is not patriotic.
Affordable care is not affordable to most of the working people.
FBI backdoor ban, will put more resources on another secret agency which is not banned.
Why FBI, why DHS, why not all of them?
Back doors are not a secret!
Yeah, but you're giving away our best tricks!
Right after he closes Gitmo,
stops warrantless wiretapping,
repeals the Patriot Act,
stays true to his claim that he doesn't have the power to unilaterally amnesty illegal immigrants,
stops drone attacks,
lets us keep our doctors and our insurance plans,
gets US troops out of Afghanistan by 2014,
punishes Syria for using chemical weapons against its populace,
holds Putin accountable for invading Ukraine,
stops Iran's progress on nuclear weapons,
balances the US budget,
"pivots" to fixing the economy and improving employment.
You know, all the things Obama's PROMISED us he'd do - or in the case of executive amnesty, NOT to do.
"If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law." - Winston Churchill
Thanks, Obama.
President Camacho: Shit. I know shit's bad right now, with all that starving bullshit, and the dust storms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito coverings. But I got a solution.
South Carolina Representative # 1: That's what you said last time, dipshit!
South Carolina Representative # 2: Yeah, I got a solution, you're a dick! South Carolina, what's up!
LI is already a requirement all governments put on telecom equipment, it's an integral part of all telecom networks now.
FBI doesn't make the telecom equipment companies include that capacity. It's a selling point.
It will never pass and not for the reasons many here might think. Other lawmakers will try to put other stuff/attachments in the bill that has zero to do with the bill. for example fund spy cameras for the police or fund something that will never pass, poisoning the bill. This is how all good bills are destroyed and making those who voted against the bill look like the evil doers when in fact they are voting against the bill because it contains SHIT.
Jack of all trades,master of none
China - trustworthy?
Sure...
I'm independent of both US and China and I trust Chinese hardware a lot more than US hardware with regards to back doors thank you very much.
Isn't this one called the "Please Stop Breaking The Law Bill"?
Being that the NSA is already, clearly conducting a blatantly illegal surveillance operation and has a blank cheque to do so from at least two presidents at this point...what makes these happy-go-lucky representatives like Wyden think that they're actually going to comply? They've been caught red-handed and the response to every leaked Snowden document is essentially the same... "Yeah, we are doing that and there's nothing you can do to stop us. Don't worry though, it's in your best interest because TERRORISM."
The only way to win this game is not to play. Stop buying smartphones and tablets for one. I bet you'd be surprised just how quickly companies like Apple and Samsung stop pandering to the NSA when it hits them square in the wallet.
The bill might make people feel better about the tech, but it won't actually stop the FBI from mandating back doors and putting gag orders on the businesses that implement them. They operate above the law, so passing laws does nothing.
Until we have actual transparency, their corruption will continue.
And to answer your question about how we reached this point, there is no mystery. Governments *always* want to do this sort of thing. It is just part of how they operate. Only the naive ever believed this sort of thing wasn't going on.
That's why the US intelligence agencies will always know what you're doing. You believe in security theater, home-made variety.
After his bill sees all the amendments and alterations, what it will do is drive a legal bulldozer through the front door ensuring what we thought was against the law now and want to be against the law is now sanctioned, legal and defined as such in law, forever. Exactly the opposite of what he wanted. What we need is for someone to enumerate 50 rights that we have that shall not be breached. For example, A person has the right to encrypt, period. This right extends to storage and transmission. Short, sweet. No nuance. The courts can read reasonable limitations into it, if needed, such as the fire clause in the theater limits the freedom of speech.
Want to enhance our rights, make a law enforcement agency that does nothing but investigate breaches of trust of the population and takes action against government officials as they violate our rights. For them to do their job, allow them to run a secret count, run by them selves, no appeal possible to dole out punishment to the government and its employees and contractors (modeled after the irs court system or the court system used by the civil forfeiture people) as those rights are endangered. Grant them the right to put in penalties like, you cannot take another dollar from any entity that gets money from the taxpayer, ever again in your lifetime. A senator votes _for_ a bill the court later finds was unconstitutional, easy solution, fired, for life, from any job that is funded by the taxpayer. Suddenly the mass of house and senate people that pass wildly unconstitutional bills, gone and banned for life from ever doing that again. The new round of people to replace them with either learn not to do that, or they will seriously consider the constitutionality of what they do.
Given them to power to write rules and regulations that elaborate our rights, much the same way the EPA gets to write rules and regulations that are in fact law. Turn them loose on writing up 10,000 rules against the government that then all government employees have to follow, or risk enforcement action against them. Let them collect fines and penalties against the government in their own court system that they then just to spend on margarita mixers and large screen televisions, and _more_ employees. The more action they take, the bigger they become.
It will fail because he's a freedom hating democrat!
this has about as much chance to pass and become law as true campaign finance reform or a single payer national health care system...
There are MANY secret or largely secretive agencies in the U.S. government. If the FBI can't do it, maybe the NSA (No Sales for Americans) will.
The U.S. government is EXTREMELY corrupt.
Being sneaky is not a practice of a healthy government.
"EXTREMELY"
I think the word you are looking for is "COMPLETELY"