[jkilpatr]

In every other field people are reasonably held responsible for their failures.

As a service tech if I fill a car with tomato sauce instead of oil I pay for the car.

As a programmer I can sell all the users data, leak it to hacks, then laugh all the way to the bank.

As a furniture salesman I can requirements on materials transparency. If I break those I'm liable.

As a programmer I can totally change the rules of my application at any time.

If society wants to trust tech it will have to hold it's creators responsible.

[lm28469]

In which country are developers above the law ?

[gravypod]

In every country the ruling party does not understand technology. It's very difficult to regulate something you don't understand.

The back door encryption thing is a fun example of this.

[lm28469]

Yes, and this is the real issue to me. The end user having a computer science PhD or not won't change that.

[Santosh83]

How is that? If more 'ordinary' people understood that the only functional encryption is one that is resistant to MitM etc., and the undesirability of implementing backdoors, even for ostensibly legitimate reasons, there would be far more pressure on legislators to not keep advancing these proposals than there is now.

[lm28469]

Again, knowing that privacy is good doesn't have anything to do with the "underlying tech" and doesn't require any technological understanding. You can read a book without knowing how it was printed.