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Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

feinstein.senate.gov

121–130 of 275 posts

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#121
post #30

> "Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order." How can you utter that sentence and simultaneously not understand why your bill is effectively worthless for its stated purpose?

When encryption is outlawed, only outlaws will have encryption.

When encryption is outlawed, ATÝ5Îd}2abJf<²58={d4\!z')E[?Mï¥E

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#122

This is requiring tech companies to provide decrypted data, yes. I want a private key that is only creatable by N separate individuals, who will only release their part of the key when they can ascertain I am not under coercion. Is there a system that does this?

Do you mean something like [Shamir's Secret Sharing][0]?

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#123
post #96
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.

When guns are outlawed, only lawmen and outlaws will have guns. Good. That's the state of affairs in every developed country except one and it's demonstrably better in every way.

You may not have realized that your statement is ambiguous between the state of affairs and the sole exception.

Either way you meant it, that is your individual belief based upon your own preferences, and there are literally millions of people who would disagree with you on this particular point. If there were no exceptions, where would all those dissenters go?

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#124

Instead of complaining into the echo chamber of comments, here are some things you can do to fight back: Donate to the EFF: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button Call your Reps: http://TryVoices.com Petition the President: https://savecrypto.org/

Find who are the major corporate donors of the backers, organize a boycott of them and call, not write, the donor companies this is why you boycott them. That's the effective way post Citizens United.

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#125
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Harvey Milk and George Moscone are dead - she wasn't killed by Dan White[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscone%E2%80%93Milk_assassina... (Edit: What I'm trying to say is that she was the person that found Harvey Milk shot and was one of the people that police asked to identify the bodies of both Milk and Moscone. Certainly being that close to the aftermath of violence changes a person.)

Wow, I had no idea Feinstein was so close to the assassinations. That's traumatic. I wonder if those events lead to her positions on defense and privacy which are so uncharacteristic of the rest of her party.

Her positions on defense and privacy are actually pretty representative of the establishment wing of her party. The Democratic party has some pretty severe divisions in it, and has for years.

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#126

Instead of complaining into the echo chamber of comments, here are some things you can do to fight back: Donate to the EFF: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button Call your Reps: http://TryVoices.com Petition the President: https://savecrypto.org/

I am gobsmacked by the tenor of comments here. At what point will HN posters finally realize that participation in the democratic process does precisely nothing against naked power?

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#127
post #100

Instead of complaining into the echo chamber of comments, here are some things you can do to fight back: Donate to the EFF: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/button Call your Reps: http://TryVoices.com Petition the President: https://savecrypto.org/

This. Comment all you want on HN or whatever forums you like, but they're basically echo chambers, and nothing really matters unless you make yourself heard to the politicians. [edit: I just called. It'll take you like two minutes] [edit: I made the phone calls in front of my 11-year-old son, who was eating breakfast, explaining who I was calling and why. He totally gets it. I'm not sure why a certain set of senators…

And tell 5 friends and family to do the same. Figure out what's important to them. Do they have children? Tell them without encryption it will be possible for bad people to know their whereabouts and general day to day movements for the purpose of exploitation and abduction. Tell them to call or write the politicians to protect their children.

Maybe your friends think they have nothing to hide, but when they consider they may want to shield their children from harm, that might make them start to think about what is actually at stake.

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> privacy argument is lost on them The point I'm making is that I don't think it's lost at all. I think these people didn't all get to be in positions of power by being bumbling idiots. They know that they can convince some portion of the masses that they are in danger and need help. And that's all it takes to get a leg up on everyone; a portion of the masses.

Okay, agree to disagree. I don't think our elected officials are bumbling idiots. But they aren't informed about everything either. It's impossible to be an expert across all fields. As technologists, we think this issue is so straightforward that you must either be evil or a complete idiot if you support this law. We'd do well to take a step back and observe our thought process. We often think things about computers…

I think most of the elected officials are technologically illiterate, and bills such as this are driven by the fear that's been instilled in those officials by the appointed or hired intelligence community. Because they're the ones, what I'll colloquially call the "citizen conformance enforcement branch" of the government, that are most interested in the data and are most empowered by it.

Investigate the motive and the means, just like you would a crime, and you won't find yourself in the legislative branch of this government.

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#129
How can they not see the contradiction? "We want your data to be secure, but we also want US to be able to see it." Technology and math in particular doesn't know who is who, and equations don't behave differently because someone writes a law. Seriously, RSA is just M' = M^E mod N. You can publish your public key in the newspaper and have people send you encrypted messages on a postcard and nobody - even the government - can decrypt it without your private key. A law can't change that, although forcing back doors into OSes will eventually lead people to using end-to-end encryption more.

Re: Intelligence Committee Leaders Release Discussion Draft of Encryption Bill

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, it's Feinstein, who represents California , that's introducing this legislation. Republican representatives have been pushing back against these bills. Representatives Amash, Issa, Labrador. Senator Paul. Last weekend I was at the Colorado GOP state convention and I spoke in-person to Colorado's leading GOP senate nominee and he spoke at length of our need to block this sort of legislation. In addition, I spoke…

It's really the establishment within both the Democratic and Republican parties that is pushing for this. It's opposed by more left-leaning Democrats and more libertarian-leaning Republicans.

I'm confused here - Democrats are "left-leaning".
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