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Justice Department To Be More Aggressive In Seeking Encrypted Data From Tech Companies (wsj.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): The Justice Department signaled Tuesday it intends to take a more aggressive posture in seeking access to encrypted information from technology companies, setting the stage for another round of clashes in the tug of war between privacy and public safety. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued the warning in a speech in Annapolis, Md., saying that negotiating with technology companies hasn't worked. "Warrant-proof encryption is not just a law enforcement problem," Mr. Rosenstein said at a conference at the U.S. Naval Academy. "The public bears the cost. When our investigations of violent criminal organizations come to a halt because we cannot access a phone, even with a court order, lives may be lost." Mr. Rosenstein didn't say what precise steps the Justice Department or Trump administration would take. Measures could include seeking court orders to compel companies to cooperate or a push for legislation. A Justice Department official said no specific plans were in the works and Mr. Rosenstein's speech was intended to spur public awareness and discussion of the issue because companies "have no incentive to address this on their own."
The intelligent argument is not that the government should be in charge of health care, but that the government should be the single-payer for health care. Numerous payers require numerous negotiations and often-unfair rates in the interest of profit. No one should profit off the health of another, and no one should be unhealthy due simply to the fact that they are poor. No one should be bankrupted by a health issue, especially when they have health insurance. Besides the obvious fact that healthier citizens are more productive, there are relatively unseen and often-ignored effects of concern over health, and guaranteed health coverage for all would eliminate those issues.
The things the other Anonymous Coward listed are all things that law enforcement have been caught doing red-handed, with powers such as the technically-illegal wiretapping. Looking up one's current or previous significant others has been shown to be a common problem. Planting evidence -
usually drugs - has been caught numerous times on camera. Whistleblower protections (including protection of their identities) have been razed. Justine Ruszczyk was killed by an LEO with complaints of sexual abuse against him when she phoned to signal a rape. Civil Assets Forfeiture quickly became armed burglary.
All of these newfound powers such as stingray units have done little if anything to solve any crimes, and yet have been consistently abused for things entirely unrelated to their official functions.
"Violent criminal organizations" are the last thing on their minds when making these arguments. They want to go after dissent, after whistleblowers. They want to stalk their exes, commit industrial espionage and blackmail. They want to track the best moments to rape and murder, or to be able to plant evidence without alibis making their so-called discoveries as obviously fake as they can be.
These powers would not and will never be used to make citizens or the country safer in any way, even if it could be used in this fashion. If there were any chance they could, they would never pursue them.
I actually couldn't have said it any better myself. Go search in the recent news; Trump has been openly hunting down regular citizens who have spoken out against him. Why would he do that if not to persecute them, perhaps to the point of false charges being raised against them, as a punitive action for DARING to speak out against the Great and Mighty Donald J. Trump, (LOL)? Note also that way too many people get into 'law enforcement' because they have Power Fantasies about subjugating (bullying, whatever you want to call it) whoever they please to, and apparently there are way too many closeted White Supremacists in law enforcement, if you take the frequency of young black men being shot to death for no damned good reason as any indicator of that.
Nope, banning encryption (or destroying it's effectiveness, same difference really) isn't going to make anyone in this country safer or reduce crime or terrorism or effectively prosecute offenders, it's going to be just one more step towards a TOTAL POLICE STATE where there is no such thing as 'Freedom', not unless you're a COP, or you're RICH. So FUCK THEM and their 'aggressive stance' (read as: BULLYING) in getting tech companies to breach citizens' devices.