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Burr-Feinstein Anti-Encryption Bill Is Officially Released (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein released the official version of their anti-encryption bill today after a draft appeared online last week. The bill, titled the Compliance with Court Orders Act 2016, would require tech firms to decrypt customers' data at a court's request. The bill is not expected to get anywhere in the Senate. President Obama has also indicated that he will not support the bill, Reuters reports. The bill requires legislation requires communications services to backdoor their encryption in order to provide "intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance to obtain such information or data." Sen. Feinstein stated, "The bill we have drafted would simply provide that, if a court of law issues an order to render technical assistance or provide decrypted data, the company or individual would be required to do so. Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order. We need strong encryption to protect personal data, but we also need to know when terrorists are plotting to kill Americans."
"We need strong encryption to protect personal data, but we also need to know when terrorists are plotting to kill Americans."
Can't have both, buddy.
Then the mere existence of GPG on your machine will be enough to send you to jail. It's that simple, really. Make a few high-profile examples and the populace will get the message. As for those die-hard cryptonerds... I bet Feinstein would love to see them all in jail away from computers, where they won't bother anyone anymore. Make no mistake: those in power are not the made of the same stuff we are. They are royalty, we are small folk. If they have to destroy thousands of us to reach their goals, they will do it. Your computer is powerless against the might of the law. Obey or be destroyed. Your choice.
This is pretty much the nail in the coffin.
If her prior activities that would make an Inspector General blanch weren't enough, this monstrosity is pretty much proof-positive of her loss of mental faculties.
Terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order.
Yeah, right.
Oh, wait, the most recent terrorist attacks in Belgium were carried out using disposable one time cell phones without using encryption of any kind.
Who are those politicians are trying to fool? Why the terrorists cannot create their own encrypted applications which do not save any data whatsoever? I mean we already have Telegram, Wire and many other apps with P2P encryption and timers which pretty much guarantee no party will ever be able to restore or decrypt the content of conversations.
The proposal itself may be awful, the likely consequences would be good. This could very well be the final push for many companies processing personal information to finally leave the US and settle in a country less hostile to privacy.
Heck, we know more people die every year:
- in backyard swimming pools
- from bee stings
- from peanut allergies
than from terrorism.
But of course, we also know this isn't about preventing terrorism.
Feinstein is appalling but not more appalling than the idiots in the state of California - who supposedly are so intelligent and cutting-edge - who elected her and have kept her in office.
The fact of the matter is that democracy in the United States is completely broken. And most people are profoundly deluded. They get up and go to work each day in a state of delusion about what is going on in their community and their state and country, as long as there is enough crap to distract them. As the saying goes: Keep them doped on religion, sex, and tv. Only perhaps science and self-righteous PC liberalism is the new religion, and video games and other things compete with tv.
It sickens me to see the anti-Trump sentiment being vocalized especially by deluded idiots who have no solution whatsoever for the serious problems occurring other than to continue being deluded. Zuckerberg had the audacity to criticize immigration policy as he lives in a $10 million home, has private security, flies around the world and stays in 5 star hotels. Yeah, try living in the neighborhoods which are being destroyed by the hell that America is becoming and then proffer that self-righteous tripe. But its never the blood of the "humanitarians" that is spilled, is it?
Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein are neither the oppressive arm of Government nor are they idiots.
They are, however, profoundly ignorant of how things work in the real (non-Beltway) world. They are of the same ilk that cannot understand that email kept on a small private server (small target) with a staff that gives a damn is quite likely a lot more secure than on a "secured government server."
They must be thinking, "the company will provide a back door and keep it secret." What a great concept. Unfortunately that idea belongs to a world where it took a whole government and a bevy of codebreakers to crack a simple substitution code - the Enigma codes. Today, a single hacker can put together thousands of cpu core resources to attack any system. If there exists a back door, if there is any way into an encrypted system, some 14 year old in Romania or Great Britian (or China!) will find it. Consider the fact that the FBI hired such to go after in iPad, and the thing was compromised in short order.
And lest we think that this is a good thing, so that governments can go after terrorists, let me pose a question on a personal level: "How big is your bank account? Would you mind if you woke up some morning and found it empty?"
There are thousands of terror targets and probably tens of thousands of would-be terrorists. There are quite literally billions of targets in the private sector. It won't make the even news for very long if Mr. Smith gets cleaned out, but to Mr. Smith it may seem pretty terrible.
And there is a worse side: Let's say that the government requires back doors everywhere. Does that mean that terrorists are going to give up and throw up their hands figuratively? Hell, no. Any competent programmer can come up with an encryption scheme not known to the government, perhaps with vulnerabiilities which are also unknown to the government. The good guys (Us!) have opened our bank accounts to the script kiddies, and the bad guys will go right on using strong encryption. The government will be right back where they are now, having to hire a hacker to break that encryption.
We will have given up the keys to our doors without putting a small dent in terrorism.
Not a good choice, imo.
Don't take life too seriously; it isn't permanent.
We do - but we cannot have both.
Choose wisely.
Are we going to start improving our public transit? No, of course not, because that's not the sexy ratings our senators here want.
No?
I think Feinstein is an evil hypocrite, in so many words, but California is doing more to promote public transportation than most states.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Feinstein is appalling but not more appalling than the idiots in the state of California - who supposedly are so intelligent and cutting-edge - who elected her and have kept her in office.
Yep. Feinstein gets votes on two bases; her vagina, and being anti-gun. There's literally no other reason to vote for her, because everything she does is harmful. She's being supported by superannuated spoiled children who want a nanny state.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
An alternate name for the bill could be the Burr-Fenstein Fucking Waste of Public Time And Money act.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I beg to differ, as the Constitution specifically mentions the general welfare of the nation in the same clause as defense.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
...very few encrypt compared to that.
Very few people buy things online? I think the more accurate view is that very few people realize how important strong encryption is to what they already do.
Then there are also the power-mad people. These people might understand how encryption works, but they don't care because they see something that isn't under their control. They can't tolerate this so they come up with a reason why having this not under their control is bad ("terrorism") and then hammer the American public and politicians with this reason. It doesn't matter if the reason isn't true (terrorists have been using clear text communication) or if their reason wouldn't be fixed by passing US laws (terrorists would use strong encryption that's already available). The thing that matters to them is getting this thing under their control - even by a little bit. Then, they can expand their control until all non-backdoored strong encryption is banned.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
"General welfare" isn't "healthcare" - not by a long shot. It's tied to national defense, or "common defense" as they put it.
On what grounds do you base that claim? It seems like general welfare and defence are simply mentioning two separate things in that sentence, with no reason for them to be linked other than that they may both be paid for by taxation.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Why are you calling out Feinstein but not Burr? They are both asshats.
Sure, but as a Republican, Burr is supposed to be an ignorant authoritarian asshat. That is the whole point of the GOP. There is a libertarian wing to the Republican party, but they are only around 10%.
But Feinstein is different. She is just as much of an asshat as Burr on social authoritarianism, but also has all the economic authoritarianism of the Democratic Party. If you took the absolute worst of American Politics, and blended them into a Frankenstein chimera, you would get Dianne Feinstein. She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
As a Californian, I am very ashamed to admit that she is my senator.
She's not a traitor... .she is just an incredibly Low IQ person that has some serious sociopath tendencies.
Why the hell Californians keep electing her I'll never understand.
There's this notion that members of Congress, despite passing legislation for the federal government, are supposed to do what's best for their own state instead of what's best for the country as a whole. There's also the issue that influence in Congress, particularly via committee membership and leadership, is based entirely on seniority. Combine these two and you have the problem that replacing Feinstein would lower California's importance in Congress, even if her replacement is clearly better.
But Feinstein is different. She is just as much of an asshat as Burr on social authoritarianism, but also has all the economic authoritarianism of the Democratic Party. If you took the absolute worst of American Politics, and blended them into a Frankenstein chimera, you would get Dianne Feinstein. She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
Is ideological consistency a redeeming quality? She isn't an authoritarian only when it's convenient or when it matches her religious dogma. She's a True Authoritarian.