3 ms·

Rumors about Echolon were around since 1980ties. There were dozen cases that confirms surveillance over last 10 years. And most governments know about this alre

by qwerta 13y ago

Rumors about Echolon were around since 1980ties. There were dozen cases that confirms surveillance over last 10 years. And most governments know about this already, they have similar project or were part of it. So nothing is going to change. Nobody will use PGP because "it is too hard". Everyone will stay on Facebook. And soon networks like Tor will get shutdown . And cryptography will become illegal word-wide (already is in UK). Welcome to 21st century.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago
sorry, cryptography is illegal in the UK? Huh?
- DuskStar 13y ago
  If I remember correctly, you can be ordered to decrypt any suspected illegal data on or travelling from your computer. Even ignoring the fact that the only difference between a 2GB file of random noise and a 2GB AES-TwoFish file is that the latter decrypts with the right password, (and thus if ordered to decrypt the first you're kinda SOL) this law includes SSL connections, for which the key is not known to you. There were some articles about the law on HN a couple months back after it was proposed, and I think it managed to pass. Again, AFAIK.
  - dllthomas 13y ago
    There was something like this more than a decade ago. I remember reading and complaining about it at the time, and feeling slightly superior that we weren't that crazy here in the (pre-9/11) US. sigh
  - lifeisstillgood 13y ago
    do you have any links?
    - DuskStar 13y ago
      One from Falkvinge (first hit on google), responding about as you'd expect [1], and a link to the actual law [2]. It doesn't make encryption illegal, it just makes it illegal to not produce the key on demand. You can decide which is worse. 1. http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the-uk-you-will-go-to-jail-not-just-for-encryption-but-for-astronomical-noise-too/ http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the-uk-you-will-go-to-jai... 2. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/53 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/53

by qwerta 13y ago

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

sorry, cryptography is illegal in the UK? Huh?

DuskStar 13y ago
If I remember correctly, you can be ordered to decrypt any suspected illegal data on or travelling from your computer. Even ignoring the fact that the only difference between a 2GB file of random noise and a 2GB AES-TwoFish file is that the latter decrypts with the right password, (and thus if ordered to decrypt the first you're kinda SOL) this law includes SSL connections, for which the key is not known to you. There were some articles about the law on HN a couple months back after it was proposed, and I think it managed to pass. Again, AFAIK.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  There was something like this more than a decade ago. I remember reading and complaining about it at the time, and feeling slightly superior that we weren't that crazy here in the (pre-9/11) US. sigh
- lifeisstillgood 13y ago
  do you have any links?
  - DuskStar 13y ago
    One from Falkvinge (first hit on google), responding about as you'd expect [1], and a link to the actual law [2]. It doesn't make encryption illegal, it just makes it illegal to not produce the key on demand. You can decide which is worse. 1. http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the-uk-you-will-go-to-jail-not-just-for-encryption-but-for-astronomical-noise-too/ http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/12/in-the-uk-you-will-go-to-jai... 2. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/53 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/23/section/53