Slashdot Mirror
US Government Will Not Force Companies To Decode Encrypted Data... For Now (washingtonpost.com)
Mark Wilson writes: The Obama administration has announced it will not require companies to decrypt encrypted messages for law enforcement agencies. This is being hailed as a "partial victory" by the Electronic Frontier Foundation; partial because, as reported by the Washington Post, the government "will not — for now — call for [such] legislation." This means companies will not be forced to build backdoors into their products, but there is no guarantee it won't happen further down the line. The government wants to continue talks with the technology industry to find a solution, but leaving things in limbo for the time being will create a sense of unease on both sides of the debate.
The EFF has also compiled a report showing where the major tech companies stand on encryption.
Encryption is either secure, or it's not. And no-one wants to use insecure encryption.
If you're an American (or frankly, any innocent person) anywhere in the world who isn't an active member of a foreign terrorist organization or an agent of a foreign power, the Intelligence Community DOES NOT CARE ABOUT and actually DOES NOT WANT your data. Sounds crazy and bizarre for foreign intelligence agencies to care about things like foreign intelligence, I know, but it's true.
You would think. And, if the government lived up to our ideals for it, that would be true. Why would a government want to spy on their own citizens?
But in the real world, history shows us that sometimes governments decide that they do want to spy on their own citizens. They decide that some citizens are "dissenters" and need to be spied on. They decide that court orders and civil rights don't apply to them. They make "enemy lists" and try to dig out dirt to discredit the enemies. They wiretap reformers and try to blackmail them.