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The issue is that whatever "audit" or "protection" method you create, whatever technology you use to ensure only the "good guys" get the information and the "bad guys" can't, it's only layers added on top of the real issue: The final key is always going to be a single number. Once the key is out, it's out. There's nothing you can do about it being out, and no way to know it's out unless your audit system somehow caught it beforehand. And that key (or these keys, which doesn't change much between "one number" and "two billion numbers" in terms of difficulty of stealing or storing them) is going to be worth trillions of dollars. Again, the bank vault thing is an apt analogy (up to a point): You can add all of the security "around" the vault, guard rounds, advanced infrared sensors, reinforced concrete with weaved kevlar in it, etc... But if someone ever gets the dollar bills in their hands, then they got the bills. And if they somehow manage to bypass the security systems and not get noticed as they go in for the steal, you have no way to know who they are or that they did it. Now, that is completely fine for a standard bank vault: after all, you need to physically send someone in, it's pretty rare for people to actually want in the vault so security can be pretty slow and involved, it doesn't have that much "money" inside (I'm pretty sure no bank vault in the world contains more than a handful of millions at any given time), and above all it's "physical" stuff inside: you'd immediately see if it's gone, it's not like someone who got in the vault can "magically" copy the bank notes and leave with the money while leaving the vault seemingly intact. It's less fine for a "server" vault, where not only do you store everything so it's worth trillions, but people need to access it all the time because "investigations" and "warrants", and in a fast way because "terrorism", and if there's a breach or a mole or anything like that then people can copy all of the data inside and leave the server seemingly intact. I think thinking that there's a technical solution is misunderstanding the problem, and that anyone pretending they "solved" it are always going to minimize one risk or the other. The governments and regulators don't get that yet, because it looks like it's just a technological issue to build "the vault". But the real issue, the fact that "the vault" doesn't matter when the consequences of stealing the contents of the vault are risk-free for bad guys but so immensely impactful for citizens, is the reason why technical solutions won't ever be enough. |
What I don't understand is, in the absence of some sort of scheme, how a justice system functions.
How would you compel production of evidence when duly authorized?