Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by the_paul 5211 days ago
This is one of the most straightforward possible applications for cryptography in data storage- no worries about key negotiation or cipher negotiation or PKI infrastructures. And yes, they're encrypting your data before sending it anywhere- that's pretty explicitly mentioned everywhere the service is explained.

So, if you're asking whether you're legally liable for the content of data on your hard drive which you have no possibility of decrypting, um, the answer is "no".

1 comments

Depending on the jurisdiction, you might still be liable for other people's encrypted data stored in your property. Whether anyone can prove that you have any particular piece of incriminating data is a different story of course, but law enforcement agencies in certain countries have a nasty tendency to skip proofs.
I submit that you're probably screwed anyway in those countries and/or jurisdictions, whether or not you have someone else's unreadable contraband. :)

In fact, here's an exercise. The following data represents a base64-encoded encrypted image:

qipN5pKHq+CCBm+yfHz0Y/NmkLd+1GjuowopHYWs3qjo6wuPsrulOBZJUXGt tsc465cM9p2qUZvKYxt/5M+2+zkjdbNMi447cLY4KUw3Xb934KDkyrviZYkh gryO3C5cPw0ZVitr/6e3pyQiEGga4SwbskCQhMw7XlqDYJowpCs/Qsh8ZQiR 2/+zQ/CGhYfU37dIQYVzqPCM7y5DHcDePGvzx2BCzu8OQThLnMWGiz5kODzY 49zrfoTQg8W0NKIC7rD529CnPVyfQok+u8L8LGqZSbOh2CUygWIF3mjmTGtd EnUBrkI49aVjeEa9/anCUw2nBRbmWWZZ5p1bvDYHGkEtlaFTJrSfVnuejBa1 NqNdMFIU6qAlpJ75Js8O2+jNi+qbVE/JUjYFtB45mf0B/E4GXbBcjg/gWhSi LvTOX7P8+HDMhg8jB2nnJ2Yf3l2CPopjKczWGZMUu3P8jamdp2kv67q0kIrE xGc3sr8r8R78StuQUVpp+5SexykhDOMQGowdBQ2yLYtRtoNDlWm47x7agM8i YP70n4wLhwZ03JH+2WmmVLVx2Yk4AZIU4t7XfdaoYaC33U58QeSaBJ4fdsJO PBp1L559jJTRrBk996gLN7V0oQSRMCWF67KezK3Bk2a07vzxjiXfwJOB5BDl ooSvoTdu5Slv9C+aIoa4ade7r7umC8Ac84XCfBY/UlmWIq0VogXuzOzZ2WkX 0uUpCnz2WX3rShKFFd8w9HhoxsOaR2S3sFbL7foqpx9SXYYjpM2vJHpEjMFQ W7Xmqlvb/2m1aUB2f6qFmqKPjo5/zIAOl90YDoDaQSin9C9/X6WRydHHcu1/ mrjo5LSdfouqOwVXMDnh95/YPvSGdO8GP35pRKUceidM4oYyQCRYGb3xKn0O TP/jKy3MXz/CeZsbxQtobq1DlC6NVVp5UifQM72ufdI5xcqObQSECFXKTTtt FuGdg+ZQ/0yLQ6WQde1B44LJML0MWIYPjrO74tOiCn4VZEsC9lakMMJZ2Qyp M1BRsh7xeQ0eVMOCEe5+yDV45uvchoGyAZsr2qTcgqTCKm4U9r1PUqBjWUjS AkVE3uIHjwL7D+gDvRuvNk4PdHpUX0p+oLp2ATmcR+TmhSNL8UEuAAw1ajgH SlhtS/BdXWkC5SFbfp6Dvt+WD+/2CwAZGgImAWXPv0YM+za80Q99au4NPR+L +KQW2wjChNkEKau9Jq5uGf36Vnt08dxVRoWzsWcPHmlFquXQrsBVsbe2Yu6v EfTAwaxFUB1kgLdTWJlxObfiBtzwf855yIggNcJZ9b/e9k6NpdJbCBYQJElf RN5qYGh4A6ASpZgZa86e2nPHvIJprm7IN9uqiI2EP9fPQp+zLorNKwxnZkv7 W//D28p0Wy5tS5F5p2ee7QI=

Is it pr0n? Is it an image of US gov't classified data? Is it hate speech? Who knows, but now it's on your computer. There are a lot of other ways someone could get data onto your computer without you knowing if it has a particular meaning.