Senator Wyden recalls SOPA fight in bid to defeat encryption-weakening efforts Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has put out a call to arms to digital rights activists, asking them to join in a SOPA-style effort to defeat upcoming efforts to weaken encryption. In a wide-ranging speech that covered J Edgar Hoover, Miranda Rights, the Founding Fathers and the Amazon Echo, the Oregon Senator warned that despite the …
One occasionally slips through the cracks. Most Congress critters are too dim to understand why Apple's stand was critical. Wyden is one of a handful that might actually possess a few functioning brain cells.
The US media is even worse. They never fully grasped the feral grab was also aimed at them.
Wyden does have a lot of tech backing by being based in Portland. He also seems to be one of the few CongressCritters who actually understand the tech at least in layman's terms. Most of those idiots want their emails printed out, an admin to which they can dictate the response, etc. IOW, he's got a big clue and listens to what the experts are saying as opposed to the bleaters.
Also a large portion of those who vote for him resist government interfering with their lives, property, freedoms, etc.
It's not *that* sensible; I like the positive nature of the sentiment - but we don't need permission for strong crypto. No government can stop it, I have the source for OpenSSL on in my possession and they can blow me.
The irrelevance of these US corps will answer the US governments question if they dare try so win-win-win.
They can't stop a good implementation from working (let's not argue about what constitutes a good implementation), but they can force companies to use poor implementations
They can force you to divulge your private key (c.f. UK)
They can force companies to do the same
And if that's the case, come on, a firmware update at the end of the factory line wouldn't be hard to legislate
Or at least, that is what I see happening right now. I don't give two shits if you, personally, can encrypt your email to your mates; the LEGALISED widespread eavesdropping on the general public is the danger, and that most definitely must be fought against.
I'm genuinely surprised. Hello Wyden, you have my attention. Now, where can I get one of these for Parliment?
They can force you to divulge your private key
No they can't. They can try but that isn't the same as actually forcing you. I've discussed this before but the blanket law re crypto keys in the UK pretty plainly isn't compatible with the charter. Also it's still a choice either way. If we all refuse to hand over keys the law is moot, terrorists won't do it so why should the rest of us; by definition that law is disproportionate. Hell this is exactly why the law isn't used because they don't want to see it tested because they know it will fail in both primary and secondary aim.
Now, where can I get one of these for Parliment?
Depending on your political flavour either Watson or Davis is probably about as close as you get.
I am relieved to see that there is at least one voice of sanity at the political level of this debate.
Much better than having no one to counter the shrillness of Hillaryzilla, or the abysmal stupidity of all the others.
Will it be enough ? Time shall tell.
Please someone write an article comparing and contrasting all of this kerfuffle to CALEA which has been on the books for 20+ years. Private communication? Never heard of them, are they new? If you could hum one of their songs for me maybe I will recognize it but I kind of doubt it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act
Wyden hit the mark that this is about security and more security in an age where digital tools advance at the pace of Moore's law, reducing the veneer of security that simple passcodes presume to provide.
My concern in the coming debates is that a surveillance agency, either US or foreign can get into your smartphone/wallet and beyond seeing what you do, they can insert records for things you did not do.
Then we have the recent successful Iranian attacks on the water utilities in New York. These probes show we need to shore up security of these and other utilities that are now open to attack. Thus we need more, not less security and the role of government should be to find vulnerabilities across our business and security institutions, alert them and hold them accountable when not addressed in a timely manner.
Lest anybody get (or persist in) the belief that Miranda is puppies and unicorns, and easy for a normal person to reason about, I submit
http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2897
(Part of an excellent series. One point made earlier in that section is that the whole point of "reading your rights" to you is _not_ "to warn you", but to allow anything you say _after_ that point to be used against you. Read the comic. Even if not in the U.S., maybe, as much U.S. law is based on Common Law, so tends to be similar to other jurisdictions)
As for those who buy the line that "if you've done nothing" and you "don't care if the government is listening in to your Amazon Echo," he recalled the era of J Edgar Hoover and his wide-ranging surveillance of groups he deemed unsuitable. "I wonder what political and social movements we might never have heard of if J Edgar Hoover had access to all the technology available today," he noted.
Fucking BINGO. The idea that "if you've done nothing wrong you'll be left alone" is at best naieve. More honestly it is a purposeful ignorance of reality by those whose overwhelming self interest and sociocultural myopia ensures they actively prevent themselves from caring about the plight of those not exactly like them.
It is simply not okay to believe "if you've done nothing wrong you'll be left alone". It is morally wrong, as it implies a carefully curated apathy and ignorance that harms society as a whole.
We need everyone on the line fighting this fight; each of us standing up for eachother is one ten millionth as powerful as a single one of those who seek to tear down the presumption of innocence and remove our civil liberties. It takes all of us to stand up to those in power. There is no room for apathy or willful ignorance anymore.
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