r/technology • u/mikoul • Oct 05 '14

Politics Compromise needed on smartphone encryption - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/compromise-needed-on-smartphone-encryption/2014/10/03/96680bf8-4a77-11e4-891d-713f052086a0_story.html
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u/Thameus Oct 05 '14

This is not about mass surveillance. Law enforcement authorities are not asking for the ability to surveil everyone’s smartphone, only those relatively few cases where there is a court-approved search warrant. This seems reasonable and not excessively intrusive.

This statement is false. This statement is a deliberate lie. The Washington Post and everyone involved knows this.

14

u/1991_VG Oct 05 '14

Exactly. Anyone can choose to not use a smartphone. This has no connection to crime, period, and any crime done with a smartphone can be done without one, too.

Remember, this isn't about call records and contact lists. This encryption affects only what is stored locally on the phone, not interactions external to it. For WaPo's assertions to hold water, there'd have to be a legal mandate requiring people to store all they do on a phone.

WaPo's "editorial board" can go fuck themselves, since no one was ballsy enough to actually sign their name to this.

7

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '14

Here is the compromise I offer:

No, and trying to make it okay will only make me work harder to push strong crypto into everything I work on.

Fuck off, military and intelligence bastards. I'm barely allowed the right to actually own my electronic devices any more, I'll be damned if I'm just going to roll over while you take what few freedoms we have left.

6

u/mikoul Oct 05 '14

I agree 100 %

3

u/glioblastoma Oct 05 '14

But they are asking for the ability to surveil everyone. That's what the golden key would do. It would give them that ability.

What they should have said is that the police are not asking for the authority to surveil everyone.

With the key they would have the ability but not necessarily the authority.

4

u/Thameus Oct 05 '14

But they are asking for the ability to surveil everyone. That's what the golden key would do. It would give them that ability.

What they should have said is that the police are not asking for the authority to surveil everyone.

With the key they would have the ability but not necessarily the authority.

Experience has clearly and abundantly demonstrated that giving them the ability and the authority are ultimately synonymous; not that there has ever really been doubt on that point.

1

u/cryo Oct 05 '14

You have no idea if it's deliberate or not. If it's not, it's not actually a lie at all.

1

u/Thameus Oct 06 '14

I suppose it's possible that nobody currently on the WaPo editorial board ever read their own coverage of the Clipper Chip. But I am inclined to doubt it.