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UK Government Says App Developers Won't Be Forced To Implement Backdoors (betanews.com)
Mark Wilson writes: The UK government is sending mixed messages about how it views privacy and security. Fears have been mounting since Prime Minister David Cameron wondered aloud 'in our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?' — his view obviously being that, no, we don't want to allow such a thing. Following the revelations about the spying activities of the NSA and GCHQ, public attention has been focused more than ever on privacy and encryption, Cameron having also suggested a desire to ban encryption. Today, some fears were allayed when it was announced that the government was not seeking to require software developers to build backdoors into their products. That said, the government said that companies should be able to decrypt 'targeted' data when required, and provide access to it.
Unfortunately, Mr Cameron lacks even basic knowledge of technology, so is unable to appreciate that his expectations of making encrypted data readable by the NSA/GCHQ/Stasi, are completely unrealistic. Cameron should keep his slimy far right persona out of areas that he can't understand - since that appears to include most areas of government, maybe he'd be better seeing employment that is more fitting for his level of ability - perhaps as a clown or jester.
And, to answer Mr Cameron's question as to whether we want to allow means of communication between people which can't be read by the secret police - I think anyone supporting of democracy will be screaming 'yes - of course we do'. This is fundamental to any democratic society. Cameron might want some kind of despotic right wing regime, but most people here don't. Remember - Cameron was elected by a very small minority of the British people (~20%), because of the way the antiquated electoral system has failed. He most certainly has no democratic mandate to rule.
The politicians deciding these rules have no idea how this stuff works. "We're not asking for back doors. Back doors are bad. We just want a way to access the contents of encrypted messages when we deem it necessary."
It'd be funny if the stakes weren't so high.
#DeleteChrome
NO developers were forced to add back doors to these apps, but most of them voluntarily chose to live peacefully with their families.