[brightball]

Except it’s not a discussion worth having.

If you have a back door, it’s there for everybody not just the people it’s intended for. Additionally, there’s not going to be a way to force people to use the encryption that happens to have a backdoor.

It’s an algorithm. People who don’t obey the rules will just use a more secure method when they need to protect something.

This is why there’s no point to having the conversations except to explain it to people.

[slg]

Do you realize how condescending it is when someone comes to you with a problem and your answer is that "is not a discussion worth having"? Warrants losing their power in the digital age is a problem and our community's refusal to recognize that just pushes the government down alternative routes to something like PRISM.

Also focusing on enforcement is making the perfect the enemy of the good. What percentage of communication in this country flows through either Apple, Google, Facebook, or Amazon? A solution that works for those 4 companies would be a huge step even if it wouldn't result in 100% coverage.

And just to be clear, I don't think the answer is necessarily backdoors in encryption. But I recognize that there is a problem and that we should be open to talk about ways to fix that problem.

[Mirioron]

Do you realize how PRISM is the very reason that the government cannot be trusted?

>What percentage of communication in this country flows through either Apple, Google, Facebook, or Amazon?

You make it sound like data collection and snooping on innocent people is the whole point of it. If backdoors are required on communication that goes through Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon then nobody's going to use the communication on those services for illicit activity that the government would care about. They would use something else.

>But I recognize that there is a problem and that we should be open to talk about ways to fix that problem.

There is no talk to be had, because the entire idea is silly. If the US government can mandate backdoors then so will every other government. This would make everyone vulnerable.

[mattnewton]

Warrants aren’t losing their power, warrants are gaining power! Never before have you been able to issue a warrant to a phone company and get someone’s location in real time, to a tech company and get the copies of all their sent mail perfectly preserved, or to their bank or credit agency to get a record of nearly every transaction they have ever made. The rate at which new information available to law enforcement might be slowing down, but it is still increasing YoY even with encryption on the rise.

[brightball]

I do. And yet, there’s no other way to approach it.

You either protect everybody or you make the compliant vulnerable.