This is something really unique to digital technologies. In meat-space, everything has a vulnerability: force. With sufficient reason and circumstance, whether or not you give up your keys, the government is still able to claim dominion over anything you're trying to hide. All they have to do is break a few walls.
Digital technologies don't have this problem (feature if you're the government). If you have your key stored in your memory, and there is no back door in the software, no matter what court orders anyone has, if you don't tell them the key then the information is lost to them forever.
This kind of breaks some fundamental assumptions layed into law prior to tech. When you use encryption, tech really becomes an extension of your mind, and your 5th amendment rights effectively shut the government out of them completely. While I like this idea, it definitely poses problems for enforcement of basically every digital and financial law on the books, which can pose problems for all of us.
This is where the analogy breaks down - introducing backdoors and passkeys into digital security doesn't create the same trail in the physical world.
The better analogy would be - imagine that the government insisted that all locks be approved by the government, on the understanding that those locks would have master keys that the government owned. They would be able to come to a bank during the night, unlock the front door, the vault, and your safe deposit box; or come into your home when you were at work, unlock your filing cabinet and look at your records.
You would have to trust that government employees who had access to the master keys would only use them for legitimate purposes, and when authorized to do so. You would have to trust that the government could secure those keys at all times so they never fell into the wrong hands, and that no unauthorized duplicates would be made.
You would have to do all those things bearing in mind that the government regularly loses such master keys, has employees that exceed their authority, misuse government resources, demonstrate poor custody practices, and so on.
It doesn't seem like a good bet to me.
EDIT: oh yes, and I forgot to mention there's a whole bunch of other bad actors out there who know how to buy a government-approved lock, take it apart, and are highly motivated to make their own master keys.
Encryption was not the only point brought up by the OP, they were also against government regulation. My main point is that we are tech workers that have conflicts of interest and that we should look hard at our viewpoints and ask ourselves if they are better for us or better for everyone. We are humans and like other industries, greed has crept in and we don't always make great decisions when left on our own.
For my own part, I find it helpful to remember that questions over encryption have been ongoing for several decades. Historically, the arguments boiled down to shouting about CSAM, terrorism, drugs, etc. Mostly it tended to be really be about law enforcement agencies wanting to have the unfettered powers of surveillance.
What's perhaps most interesting to me is that the prevalence of encryption seems to have done very little to stop the FBI from catching people. I know this next point will be contentious, but perhaps there's room to question why these people who are indeed not idiots are so against encryption for you and me.
So yes, you're absolutely right. Let's look hard at our viewpoints and biases and expertise and paychecks and ask ourselves - why does the FBI want us to not have encryption? Why do we want it? Who has the valid view points here?
> What's perhaps most interesting to me is that the prevalence of encryption seems to have done very little to stop the FBI from catching people.
I don't think we can know this. Or maybe you have some data? But more importantly there's a big gap between "catching" someone and "convicting" someone. Having the content of specific communications can make a big difference in actually proving guilt.
I completely agree. My point was not that their motives are inherently evil per se, just that they're as self-centered as anyone and carefully gazing deep into our navels does not imbue their perspectives with extra validity or compelling strength.
> I don't think we can know this.
We do know that the FBI routinely arrests and prosecutes people, even ones that use encryption. There's no end of public sources showing it occurring again and again. The fate of Dread Pirate Roberts is a good example.
> Or maybe you have some data?
What data would you like? The FBI has statistics available going back to the 1930s: https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr
> Having the content of specific communications can make a big difference in actually proving guilt.
You're absolutely right, it definitely can be! Which is why the FBI has learned how to both build cases without such things. They've also learned how to gain access to encrypted communications. Between the two, some might opine that it's enough to raise questions about if they really need to prevent you and I from having access to cryptography or not. They're clearly experts at law enforcement and perhaps have no need to confiscate the tools of mathematics from technologists.
Which brings me back to the point. Let's look hard at our viewpoints and biases and expertise and paychecks and ask ourselves - why does the FBI want us to not have encryption? Why do we want it? Who has the valid view points here? What have we gained from this navel-gazing?
I don't want to live in a police state and I'm not sure of anyone else that does. I also don't want to live in complete anarchy or even a libertarian state because I think there are bad people out there that would take advantage of that and potentially hurt other people.
It always seems to be hand waved away on this forum, but perfect computer security could indeed help criminals out there. I don't know the numbers around how many more but I really believe that no one knows.
I make no assertion that one side is right and the other is wrong, just that it is a hard problem and that I don't know the answer.
Where and how do we find the balance? I know the law enforcement community pushes against computer security to attain better security (in the law enforcement sense) and I know that tech people generally push for computer security that limits law enforcement abilities. I don't think we can let one side of the argument completely win, but how do we find that balance?
If you seek numbers, the FBI invites you to inspect their data: https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr
As you correctly and wisely say, the world is full of hard problems with many strong, clear, compelling, and valid viewpoints to balance. It may just be possibly worth considering that this might not be one such scenario where balance is possible, let alone achievable. Do you think there might be cases, in the fullness of the human experience, where one set of extremists on an issue are right, their opposite numbers are wrong, and any balance between them also wrong? What if what seems to be a balance is based on a false premise?
Perhaps we should stop, take a step back, and examine our biases?
> Do you think there might be cases, in the fullness of the human experience, where one set of extremists on an issue are right, their opposite numbers are wrong, and any balance between them also wrong?
Yes, I think there probably are cases where something like this happens but I would assume those cases would be a little less debatable. But yes, what you say makes a lot of sense and is probably a large part of the reason the current political climate is so tribal.
> Perhaps we should stop, take a step back, and examine our biases?
If you are talking about the current case though, what is the false premise or what are the biases?
There are indeed monsters out there that hurt women and children and use technology to accomplish those crimes. They are not made up bogey men. They flock to technology that provides them cover and punishments for crimes deter criminals from attempting those crimes. If criminals did not have to fear punishments, more crimes would happen. I certainly would speed more if I didn't have to worry about speeding tickets.
I'm glad we agree!
Here's where the hot take comes in: we're there now. Encryption is something we have access to. Law enforcement manages to work around it on a regular basis and has now for several decades.
> Yes, I think there probably are cases where something like this happens but I would assume those cases would be a little less debatable.
One would certainly hope so, but it's perhaps possible that this might not always be true. There are often people ready and willing to debate what should be undebateable. It shocks the conscience.
> If you are talking about the current case though, what is the false premise or what are the biases?
Some people have come to this conversation with the false premise that taking away encryption will substantially help law enforcement, improving safety and security for our vulnerable friends, neighbors, and community members. Their pain, suffering, and exploitation is very real, yet that perhaps does not always make functional what is done in the name of keeping them safe.
Some have come to this debate with the bias of assuming there is a useful policy medium to be found. Perhaps there is not, as we might be dealing with technical matters that are all-or-nothing in unavoidable ways.
Some may find these to be perhaps worthy of careful examination, as such things can perhaps lead to dangerously misguided policy - such as the Clipper chip or mass surveillance.
Thank you for being thoughtful and centering kindness, mercy, and compassion.
I feel strange having to point out that Governments are made up of people too. If it's not people that are making the good decisions, whom do we turn to?
Is Admiral Poindexter a preferable decision-maker?
That is a trait lacking in almost everyone these days, not just tech workers.
Some software engineers might be experts in the domain of encryption, but there are other professions who are experts in the domain of National Security.
As for her expertise, she worked in FB's civic integrity unit as a product manager. I may disagree with her, but she does have a reasonable basis to claim better knowledge on the topic than the average person.
On the topic of encryption, we're the only community with an understanding of what "breaking encryption" means. There are no skeleton keys, only vulnerabilities. We have a moral and ethical duty to fight for encryption, privacy, and security, not against it.