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A comment on Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy cannot prevail. Parent comment

Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Saturday March 12, 2016 @09:47AM (#11273057)
There seems to be a difference between your examples and encryption though. All of your examples were developments that created positive value. AFAICT encryption in itself doesn't create positive value, it only prevents negative value. If, for example, our letters couldn't be opened, encryption would only be a waste of resources.
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by nateabele on Saturday March 12, 2016 @10:44AM (#11273222)
It is an undisputed historical fact that ubiquitous strong encryption was the primary enabler in the explosion of online commerce. What are you even talking about?
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Sunday March 13, 2016 @03:26AM (#11276621)
Source?
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by toomuchtodo on Monday March 14, 2016 @12:45AM (#11281125)
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/ecommerce/encrypt.html

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/ssl.asp

Those were the two most relevant links from Googling "ecommerce encryption". Regardless, without the ability encrypt personal and payment data for ecommerce transactions, it would've never succeeded.

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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by emXdem on Saturday March 12, 2016 @09:57AM (#11273074)
That's not true. Being able to programatically verify (via public private key) makes things like ssl/key authorities possible. That's a multi-billion dollar industry.
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Sunday March 13, 2016 @03:27AM (#11276622)
Cryptographic signatures are not the same as encryption.
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by kazinator on Saturday March 12, 2016 @12:53PM (#11273731)
That just means you have a broken way of assigning value which gives zero credit to inventions which enable other inventions, or provide safety, or mitigate risk.

Do tools have value? If you make something with tools, it's not the tools themselves which made it.

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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Sunday March 13, 2016 @03:28AM (#11276624)
The implication of my post wasn't "therefore encryption is worthless". It was more of "therefore I would like more relevant historical analogs".
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by kazinator on Sunday March 13, 2016 @01:34PM (#11278510)
How about this one: the invention of the concept of a written contract with authenticating signatures and seals, allowing business to take place. (Together with a legal system for enforcing contracts.) Courts and documents themselves don't produce tangible value.

Insurance doesn't product value, but it protects. It has monetary value, demonstrated by the fact that people make premium payments to maintain it. Many never collect a dime over the life of an insurance term.

All kinds of infrastructure is an indirect example.

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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by api on Saturday March 12, 2016 @12:25PM (#11273628)
Robust distributed systems that cross trust boundaries are impossible without crypto. That creates quite a lot of value.
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Sunday March 13, 2016 @01:25PM (#11278467)
Why wouldn't cryptographic signatures be enough?
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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by diego_moita on Saturday March 12, 2016 @12:27PM (#11273637)
Oh, you never heard about online banking? You never shopped at Amazon?

Do you know what SSL means and how it works?

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Re:Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy canno... by oh_sigh on Sunday March 13, 2016 @03:25AM (#11276618)
I have. I have. I do.
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