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NY Bill Would Force Decryption of Smartphones On Demand (onthewire.io)
Trailrunner7 sends word about New York Assemblyman Matthew Titone's bill that forbids the sale of smartphones that can't be cracked by their manufacturers. On the Wire reports: "A bill that is making its way through the New York state assembly would require that smartphone manufacturers build mechanisms into the devices that would allow the companies to decrypt or unlock them on demand from law enforcement. The New York bill is the latest entry in a long-running debate between privacy advocates and security experts on one side and law enforcement agencies and many politicians on the other. The revelations of the last few years about widespread government surveillance, especially that involving cell phones and email systems, has spurred device manufacturers to increase the use of encryption. New Apple iPhones now are encrypted by default, as are some Android devices. Apple, Google, and the other major manufacturers have said that user privacy and security is their main concern. The bill that is now in committee in the New York State Assembly makes no equivocation about what it is designed to do. 'Any smartphone that is manufactured on or after January First, Two Thousand Sixteen, and sold or leased in New York, shall be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider,' the bill says."
Just stop selling phones in New York, and sell them in every where else. Make consumers order them via Amazon.
China would be so proud.
"New York Assemblyman Matthew Titone"
Let's see, no "R", "Republican", etc., so I guess we know which one it is.
Do you have ESP?
Do you think this is truly limited to NY? Or do you think it's part of a larger issue the entire country is facing?
Since when did America support such massive erosion of privacy and liberty?
In less than 20 years the US has gone from "give me liberty or give me death" to "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear".
That shit ain't unique to New York state.
Increasingly the populace will vote for stuff which a generation ago would have drawn outrage and (correctly) been compared to fascism. America is becoming everything it used to stand against.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
There's two outcomes which seem plausible to me:
1) Another state comes along and demands that all phones sold can't have backdoors -- hilarity ensues.
2) The feds get in on the game and decree all phones have backdoors -- and America stops pretending it's a free country and embraces the New World Order.
Oh, and of course if all iPhones ever had to have a back door in them, the rest of the world stops buying US technology products because they can't be trusted. (Which is already becoming an issue for US tech companies who can't comply with both US law and the laws of the countries where they do business.)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I love it when Democrats whine that Republicans are too zealous with police powers, then turn around and try to one-up them.
It's all a game: we're tricked into blaming each other, instead of actually fighting back against ever-growing state power. Any general election of "establishment Democrat" vs "establishment Republican" is an election the voters have already lost. The real battle is at the primaries, and the primaries are happening soon. Look's like we'll be spared "Bush vs Clinton" but "Rubio vs Clinton" is about the same.
I don't like Trump. I don't like Sanders. I'd take either of them in a heartbeat over "more of the same"! (Cruz looks less crazy than I'd figured - maybe it's just the contrast with Trump but I'm re-considering him).
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Except that this bill is about requiring the manufacturers of smartphones and their operating systems provide a way to unlock them without the keys between your ears.