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David Cameron in 'cloud cuckoo land' over encrypted messaging apps ban

32 points by notsony 12y ago

Someone1234 12y ago
Politically I've never thought that highly of Cameron. But that speech was pretty shockingly ignorant and idiotic even for him. The UK's expectation of "freedom" and "privacy" has never been as high as the US's, and in fact a large chunk of the UK population somewhat support spying for security, but even relative to that these ideas are pretty bonkers. He really wants to go back to an era when we had those disastrous and ineffective encryption export restrictions that held technology back several years. It is just unworkable. And pretending like you can put the encryption genie back into the bottle is also dumb.
tsunamifury 12y ago
Its unfortunate that when I go back home, the general sentiment about spying is "Well I don't have anything to hide, so what do I care?" Most people don't grasp the long history of abuse law enforcement agencies have against important social movements -- Wiretapping MLK by the FBI for the express purpose of making threats based on personal information is the clearest example that comes to mind. Private industry is starting to have a better track record than government in this space (I have known of individuals to be immediately terminated when they were found to have accessed un-anonimized data without an explicit, justifiable, and approved reason). Where as unlawful wiretapping with the intent to intimidate, blackmail, and generally 'keep an eye on things' is an accepted government practice.
ewzimm 12y ago
Next up... David Cameron bans whispering. It seems like this kind of reality-denial is acknowledgement of the kinds of challenges posed by advancing technology to the classical methods of control. The obvious solution here is not to address the communication methods, but rather addressing the motivations for crimes that can no longer be addressed by wiretapping, moving to a more preventative strategy. There seems to be a general unwillingness to acknowledge that technology empowers people who previously had very little power, and therefore policies which disproportionately benefit those in control are going to start to elicit stronger reactions from those offended by them. There are really only two options here... an escalation of invasion into privacy, moving absolute control and monitoring into law enforcement, or broader distribution of power so that central control is less necessary. Of course, the kinds of terrorism that prompt these changes in control strategy are relatively rare and blown out of proportion as far as their danger to the average person, but the empowerment of previously disempowered people through technology is a real trend that requires a response.
beached_whale 12y ago
So we'll see more stuff like this that blends steganography and encryption so the message looks normal. Probably like the spam messages being used to train mail systems to recognize ham as spam and blend into the norm. Then the line between code and speak is blurred more maybe. http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jsw/article/viewFile/0507785792/1959 http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jsw/article/viewFi...
MildlySerious 12y ago
I don't see how a politician can say something that literally screams Orwellian society and get away with it. It's not an option, or at least it shouldn't be. If you're too lazy to bust your ass for alternative solutions you shouldn't be a politician to begin with.

32 points by notsony 12y ago

Politically I've never thought that highly of Cameron. But that speech was pretty shockingly ignorant and idiotic even for him. The UK's expectation of "freedom" and "privacy" has never been as high as the US's, and in fact a large chunk of the UK population somewhat support spying for security, but even relative to that these ideas are pretty bonkers. He really wants to go back to an era when we had those disastrous and ineffective encryption export restrictions that held technology back several years. It is just unworkable. And pretending like you can put the encryption genie back into the bottle is also dumb.

tsunamifury 12y ago

Its unfortunate that when I go back home, the general sentiment about spying is "Well I don't have anything to hide, so what do I care?" Most people don't grasp the long history of abuse law enforcement agencies have against important social movements -- Wiretapping MLK by the FBI for the express purpose of making threats based on personal information is the clearest example that comes to mind. Private industry is starting to have a better track record than government in this space (I have known of individuals to be immediately terminated when they were found to have accessed un-anonimized data without an explicit, justifiable, and approved reason). Where as unlawful wiretapping with the intent to intimidate, blackmail, and generally 'keep an eye on things' is an accepted government practice.

ewzimm 12y ago

Next up... David Cameron bans whispering. It seems like this kind of reality-denial is acknowledgement of the kinds of challenges posed by advancing technology to the classical methods of control. The obvious solution here is not to address the communication methods, but rather addressing the motivations for crimes that can no longer be addressed by wiretapping, moving to a more preventative strategy. There seems to be a general unwillingness to acknowledge that technology empowers people who previously had very little power, and therefore policies which disproportionately benefit those in control are going to start to elicit stronger reactions from those offended by them. There are really only two options here... an escalation of invasion into privacy, moving absolute control and monitoring into law enforcement, or broader distribution of power so that central control is less necessary. Of course, the kinds of terrorism that prompt these changes in control strategy are relatively rare and blown out of proportion as far as their danger to the average person, but the empowerment of previously disempowered people through technology is a real trend that requires a response.

beached_whale 12y ago

So we'll see more stuff like this that blends steganography and encryption so the message looks normal. Probably like the spam messages being used to train mail systems to recognize ham as spam and blend into the norm. Then the line between code and speak is blurred more maybe. http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jsw/article/viewFile/0507785792/1959 http://ojs.academypublisher.com/index.php/jsw/article/viewFi...

MildlySerious 12y ago

I don't see how a politician can say something that literally screams Orwellian society and get away with it. It's not an option, or at least it shouldn't be. If you're too lazy to bust your ass for alternative solutions you shouldn't be a politician to begin with.