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Personally I'm not convinced the rewards outweigh the risks in regards to encryption, at least not at this moment in time. But again, I'd much rather issues lik

by kypro 5y ago

Personally I'm not convinced the rewards outweigh the risks in regards to encryption, at least not at this moment in time. But again, I'd much rather issues like these were debated democratically than some tech company deciding one day that they need to view my private messages to "protect the children". But to your point, if the sharing of child porn or other illegal content ever got so bad that something urgently needed to be done I would personally be open to limiting the use E2EE (if there truly was no better option) and I'd assume most people here would agree, although I would argue in many cases it's E2EE that prevents you from becoming a victim of things like revenge porn in the first place.

slg 5y ago
>I'd much rather issues like these were debated democratically than some tech company deciding one day that they need to view my private messages to "protect the children". I agree with your general point except most people in the tech community are not willing to even have these debates. It is often treated as an issue with a single right answer and that encryption can never be compromised. Removing ourselves from the debate is only going to end up with the decision being made without our input.
int_19h 5y ago
The thing about E2EE is that it's not something that you can meaningfully ban in a non-totalitarian society. RSA boils down to one fairly simple formula, for example, or a Perl one-liner. People who really need it will figure it out. Besides, there would be quite a few people who'd be actively circumventing any such law if it were enacted, e.g. by hosting the apps in other jurisdictions. And I think that's a good thing! There should be fundamental limits on the power of governance, regardless of how democratic said governance is; and democracies can be no less abusive than other forms when it comes to minorities etc. Or even majorities, when established public mores essentially require widespread hypocrisy - the Prohibition comes to mind. "Think of the children" (or terrorists, or whatever is the go-to political excuse at any particular moment) is not a valid exception.

by kypro 5y ago

slg 5y ago

>I'd much rather issues like these were debated democratically than some tech company deciding one day that they need to view my private messages to "protect the children". I agree with your general point except most people in the tech community are not willing to even have these debates. It is often treated as an issue with a single right answer and that encryption can never be compromised. Removing ourselves from the debate is only going to end up with the decision being made without our input.

int_19h 5y ago

The thing about E2EE is that it's not something that you can meaningfully ban in a non-totalitarian society. RSA boils down to one fairly simple formula, for example, or a Perl one-liner. People who really need it will figure it out. Besides, there would be quite a few people who'd be actively circumventing any such law if it were enacted, e.g. by hosting the apps in other jurisdictions. And I think that's a good thing! There should be fundamental limits on the power of governance, regardless of how democratic said governance is; and democracies can be no less abusive than other forms when it comes to minorities etc. Or even majorities, when established public mores essentially require widespread hypocrisy - the Prohibition comes to mind. "Think of the children" (or terrorists, or whatever is the go-to political excuse at any particular moment) is not a valid exception.