Obama: Gov't Shouldn't Be Hampered By Encrypted Communications

According to an article at The Wall Street Journal, President Obama has sided with British Prime Minister David Cameron in saying that police and government agencies should not be blocked by encryption from viewing the content of cellphone or online communications, making the pro-spying arguments everyone has come to expect: “If we find evidence of a terrorist plot and despite having a phone number, despite having a social media address or email address, we can’t penetrate that, that’s a problem,” Obama said. He said he believes Silicon Valley companies also want to solve the problem. “They’re patriots.” ... The president on Friday argued there must be a technical way to keep information private, but ensure that police and spies can listen in when a court approves. The Clinton administration fought and lost a similar battle during the 1990s when it pushed for a “clipper chip” that would allow only the government to decrypt scrambled messages.

Comments

Re:I would rather see 1000 terrorists go free...

[rsmith-mac]

I dont like the scumbags that shoot up chocolate shops and newspaper offices or crash airplanes into buildings or blow up nightclubs but I would rather see 1000 terrorists go free than to see a single innocent person have their privacy, security, civil liberties or constitutional rights violated.

And I would rather not die.

Freedom is an incredible, wonderful thing. But there comes a point where I need to balance that with other things such as seeing my daughter grow up.

Re:That is what you lost...

[Karmashock]

Oh, we do talk to other americans. Americans excel at talking as you should be more then aware at this point.

As to violent revolution... someday perhaps. Not today. It is one of the reasons we preserve our weapons. The idiots in our society have a hard time grasping that things don't last forever.

The US will fall one day. And when that happens who do they want to have the guns? Do they really want the people disarmed when order breaks down?

Why is any people afforded rights when the laws are written? Because if they are not, those people will hang the men writing them.

Literally.

And when a government does not fear its people it does not respect them either.

We need our weapons because we have a right to be dangerous and a right to be feared for in being feared we are respected.

All respect is based ultimately on fear. Fear of the consequences. The fear of "or else".

It is why you pay your bills. It is why you drive the speed limit.

The US is going through a hard time. We are still digesting the ideological poison that Europe sent us more then 100 years ago. We have weathered its effects better then any of our peers. But it is nasty stuff and in the process many of our core institutions became irreparably damaged. It will take us sometime to bypass and rebuild them.

But have no fear... we have not stopped talking.