FBI Wants to Destroy Encryption and Is Still Illegally Snooping on Americans (opens in new tab)

(reason.com)

23 pointsutternerd6y ago3 comments

3 comments

Serious question: If they were able to see all communications legally, and had all the snooping powers they seem to desire, would we be better off in the long run? There’s probably an implicit belief - on this site and elsewhere - that these agencies can’t be trusted with such power. Even if this were true, wouldn’t any abuse of power be ferreted out by the public sooner or later? Wouldn’t the truth eventually come to light, and everyone better off overall?

colejohnson666y ago

Even with the revelations from Snowden, the public doesn’t seem to care.

chris57456y ago

You’re saying even if police/security had all that power, and they abused it, the public wouldn’t care.

I’m saying they absolutely would.

We sure cared about Rodney King, and that was the result of a video of a public event that occurred before a smartphone was in everyone’s pocket. You really think we don’t have the tools to watch the watchers today?

These agencies want encryption back doors, not elimination of encryption. Think about that for a minute. Think about it for an hour.

What if there was no encryption at all? What if there was a decentralized blockchain of hashes or whatever that resulted from “Johnny in Tucson AZ visited the New York Times at 11:41PM EDT on January 21, 2019”? Reconstruction of any other event wouldn’t match.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

3 comments

chris57456y ago

colejohnson666y ago

Even with the revelations from Snowden, the public doesn’t seem to care.

chris57456y ago

You’re saying even if police/security had all that power, and they abused it, the public wouldn’t care.

I’m saying they absolutely would.

These agencies want encryption back doors, not elimination of encryption. Think about that for a minute. Think about it for an hour.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse