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Compare it to an envelope in the regular mail. How would they feel if every post office along the way opened their mail, made a photocopy, and put it back in a

Compare it to an envelope in the regular mail. How would they feel if every post office along the way opened their mail, made a photocopy, and put it back in a new envelope before passing it on? Because that's the way things currently are with e.g. Facebook Messenger, Gmail, etc. E2E is when your envelopes are only opened by their final recipient.

__MatrixMan__ 7y ago
I'm with you, but as a critique for your metaphor: Does the layperson receive meaningful mail anymore? With the exception of my W-2 and the occasional jury summons, I feel like nothing about my life would change if the post office just threw away my envelopes.
- thecatspaw 7y ago
  Yes, I get bills, banking records, payment slips, voting papers etc all per mail. I also have a shredder to destroy it before throwing them away.
- httpsterio 7y ago
  Rarely important stuff passed through the mail as everything has moved to email... Thus, making the issue even more prominent.
CJefferson 7y ago
But, I think the government should, with a warrant, be able to open peoples mail in transit. And they currently do. E2E encryption with no backdoor removes this ability from them.
- diminoten 7y ago
  It's really a question of scale. Would you be as okay with the government's ability to do this if they could flip a switch and suddenly do it for all of a person's mail immediately and without detection? What about making that system available to anyone, irrevocably, who managed to get access to that system at one point? And would you put penalties in place for people who, when their mail is opened, are found to be using a cypher of their own? Is it illegal now to speak in code at all?
- emilecantin 7y ago
  Yes, and that's a debate we should have as a society. I personally think privacy is more important than government's ability to peek at private conversations, but this is something we should collectively decide.

__MatrixMan__ 7y ago

I'm with you, but as a critique for your metaphor: Does the layperson receive meaningful mail anymore? With the exception of my W-2 and the occasional jury summons, I feel like nothing about my life would change if the post office just threw away my envelopes.

thecatspaw 7y ago
Yes, I get bills, banking records, payment slips, voting papers etc all per mail. I also have a shredder to destroy it before throwing them away.
httpsterio 7y ago
Rarely important stuff passed through the mail as everything has moved to email... Thus, making the issue even more prominent.

CJefferson 7y ago

But, I think the government should, with a warrant, be able to open peoples mail in transit. And they currently do. E2E encryption with no backdoor removes this ability from them.

diminoten 7y ago
It's really a question of scale. Would you be as okay with the government's ability to do this if they could flip a switch and suddenly do it for all of a person's mail immediately and without detection? What about making that system available to anyone, irrevocably, who managed to get access to that system at one point? And would you put penalties in place for people who, when their mail is opened, are found to be using a cypher of their own? Is it illegal now to speak in code at all?
emilecantin 7y ago
Yes, and that's a debate we should have as a society. I personally think privacy is more important than government's ability to peek at private conversations, but this is something we should collectively decide.