Smartphone Encryption is a Red Herring

Fully agree with Geoff on this, and EVERYONE should read his blog post:

http://blog.xojo.com/smartphone-encryption-is-a-red-herring

Well said!

Anyone remembers the VChip Clinton wanted to incorporate in electronic devices ? Encryption is one of those things that attract attention of politicians just as well as … a red herring hunt hounds. They cannot tolerate the idea anybody could keep private information (except their mistresses and shady arrangements). So anytime a new technical mean to protect private information comes along, they get nervous and pull the backdoor card. Isis is just a new excuse for their pet obsession.

As for companies that bend more numerous than those which resist, look at China :wink:

The logic is unassailable: by definition, criminals do not follow laws, so more laws only restrict the law-abiding. But “security theater” is a powerful political tool, so we get things like the TSA confiscating nail-clippers, “gun-free zones”, and calls for encryption backdoors.

So is the flip side of this we should have no laws since they only restrict people who are likely to have obeyed them if they existed ?

This is polemic. The important statement (which I assume is also Geoff’s intention) is whether we want an Orwellian surveillance state, or not.

I would have expected better reasoning. Laws are not there to protect people (they can’t as they only apply after a crime has been committed), they are there too define what is considered a crime and punish the offenders.

I think your wrong about the Orwellian state

Thats not what law makers are proposing or asking for
They’re not asking for “always on always watching decryption & surveillance”
The WOULD be Orwellian

They want a way to have a warrant honored / enforced as per existing laws like they could if they got a wire tap warrant
But that would require a back door
And that is easily worked around & made useless by writing an extra app that adds another encryption layer

Unfortunately thats the part lawmakers dont get

Bzzztttt … conspiracy laws can be applied BEFORE the crime happens
Suicide prevention laws are ONLY effective BEFORE the crime occurs - as if you succeed well …

The problem with a “backdoor” is the same as the problem with “encyption” itself.
Someone encrypts data to keep other prying eyes from seeing it with out the authorization (ie. “key”)
A “backdoor” is a “master key” that allows the “landlord” (device mfg.) to unlock you file if legally requested to do so.

BUT… if a “master key” can be made, then some nefarious person will figure out how to craft it, and now your encryption is worthless… Plus as mentioned, nothing to stop someone from pre-encyrpting their data before transmission, so when Apple (or whomever) decrypts it, all they get is another layer that they CAN’T crack.

So you get into this expensive round-robin of tighter and tighter encryption, that does nothing to forward the process of Information Technology.

the encryption arms race :slight_smile:
this problem has existed through human history just in different forms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cryptography :stuck_out_tongue:

No. There has to be a conspiracy in the first place (conspiracy to commit a crime is the crime). If you conspire to kill someone then you are not prosecuted for murder, you are prosecuted for conspiracy to commit murder.

There also needs to be some action in furtherance of the conspiracy. Just talking about it is not enough.