[tjgq]

And then they will outlaw the possession of said standard C software, as well as of computer hardware that does not comply with government-mandated eavesdropping. And then they will pass laws that force you to give up the encryption key to that Base64 data or face imprisonment. Even if the Base64 data is just a sequence of completely random bits - because who would keep sequences of random bits around, unless they're a terrorist trying to hide something?

I'm sorry, but I don't think pushing encryption down into the underworld is a viable solution to the problem. There's no limit to the bad laws that the government can pass. The only real long-term solution is to recognize encryption as a right, otherwise we'll only keep seeing these repeated attempts to outlaw it.

[graycat]

> And then they will pass laws that force you to give up the encryption key to that Base64 data or face imprisonment.

IMNAL, but my understanding is that such a law would run into rock solid, granite hard, iron clad parts of a little issue called the US Constitution. E.g., if the cops ask you a question, then you don't have to answer. The person's lawyer can just tell the cops that "My client has no idea what that base 64 gibberish is."

For encryption as a recognized right, no, that's asking a bit much of the US political system.

BTW, for the person receiving the base 64 code (that's the way JPGs, etc. are sent in e-mail), first go through base 64 decoding and, then, apply the receiver's private key to that to decode back to the secret message, e.g., where and when the boy and his girlfriend are going to meet and carve their initials on a tree.

Base 64 is in the internet standard for e-mail and there is called MIME for multi-media internet mail extensions. So, the idea of MIME is to permit sending pictures, audio, movies, etc.

So, in arithmetic, base 10 has digits 0-9, that is, 10 digits. Base 16 has, right, 16 digits, 0-9-A-F. Base 2 has, you guessed it, 2 digits, 0-1. Well, presto, bingo, base 64 has 64 digits, 0-9, a-z, etc., all simple, ordinary printable characters such as e-mail had been sending right along.

Well, with 6 bits, can count from 0 to 63, that is, have 64 different patterns. So, given a stream of bits, can replace each 6 of them with one of the base 64 digits. And there is a simple solution for what to do with any few bits left over. So, that is how to take any stream of bits and 'encode' it to just printable characters easy to send via e-mail.

A huge fraction of all Internet data is sent as base 64. So, base 64 data alone is nothing suspicious.

[Sacho]

> IMNAL, but my understanding is that such a law would run into rock solid, granite hard, iron clad parts of a little issue called the US Constitution. E.g., if the cops ask you a question, then you don't have to answer. The person's lawyer can just tell the cops that "My client has no idea what that base 64 gibberish is."

"And here our intelligence network shows proof that your client has talked about this base64 gibberish in the past with other people, so let's add perjury to your charges".

But your point is valid, you have a right to not incriminate yourself in the US. The case with Apple, however, is that a third party you've trusted is being asked to breach that trust. The 5th does not apply at all.

Not to worry, however, as long as you don't communicate with anyone, you're safe. The moment you do communicate with someone though, you'd have to put your trust in them. And then the FBI could demand, from them, the conversations you've had. And then the 5th has no value.

[tjgq]

> IMNAL, but my understanding is that such a law would run into rock solid, granite hard, iron clad parts of a little issue called the US Constitution. E.g., if the cops ask you a question, then you don't have to answer. The person's lawyer can just tell the cops that "My client has no idea what that base 64 gibberish is."

The US Constitution hasn't helped prevent the PATRIOT act, or the TSA's unreasonable search powers.

> A huge fraction of all Internet data is sent as base 64. So, base 64 data alone is nothing suspicious.

There's a difference between Base64 that decodes into a harmless cat picture, and Base64 that's apparently random. Unless we make it normal for everyone to have encrypted, random-looking data lying around, the few that choose to have it will be increasingly harassed by the government, even if they're not doing anything wrong.