Freedom. Nobody, and least of all a government, should be able to decide what software you use. If their will stands above yours, you are a slave. Do you like slavery? Do you love yourself?
Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
11–20 of 255 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#12Just because someone can abuse a thing doesn't make the thing bad, it makes the person who commits the abuse bad. We don't ban cars to fight drunk driving and we shouldn't eliminate the spirit of the 4th Amendment to go after child pornographers, terrorists, money launderers and drug dealers. Even with E2E encrypted communications the fact that user A is communicating with user B, when, and for how long is knowable,…
[flagged]
I love this devil's advocation. I certainly don't agree with it but it makes a great conversation.
Stir that pot.
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#13Freedom. Nobody, and least of all a government, should be able to decide what software you use. If their will stands above yours, you are a slave. Do you like slavery? Do you love yourself?
> If their will stands above yours, you are a slave.
I'm not making an argument about encryption, but you know there are these things called "laws", right?
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#14Is this about adding E2EE to the common platforms?
Pedophiles and terrorists are already using E2EE I would think, so this is really about government being able to spy on everyone.
They don't have that ability IRL, why should they online?
More importantly, what are the macro consequences of government access to everyone's private communications, and especially, the oppressive effect on free speech etc when everyone is aware they are being monitored (I do sometimes wonder if Snowden was more 'deliberate leak' than 'whistleblower').
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#15What are your arguments in favor of knives? How do you respond when someone brings up concerns of knives being used to stab people?
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#16> how do you respond when someone brings up concerns of E2EE platforms being used for child sexual abuse imagery or terrorism?
These are only a tiny part of uses of encryption. Ask anyone if he would like to have his bank transfers, or his credit card credentials in plain text. End to end encryption allows the whole internet to act as a commerce platform.
Encryption allows journalists and activists in strict, controlled regimes to let facts out. It allows an abuse victim to safely expose the abuser. It allows at a broader spectrum to maintain secrecy when secrecy is the only way a subject has to distantiate himself from harm.
Disabling end to end encryption requires an implicit good faith on those who look at our communications, and the history is full of abuse from those figures.
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#17Encryption is math. Can we really make a form of math illegal?
I feel privacy is a basic human right regardless of what country you live in.
I’m not fan of punishing the majority because of a screwed up minority.
People who commit illegal acts as horrible as child abuse and terrorism are not going to respect the law when it comes to encryption.
Again, you can’t stop people from doing math. The idea of making it illegal is silly.
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#18Because encryption is math and knowledge. Banning it will only stop legitimate users while bad actors can still just go ahead and encrypt their stuff.
If politicians consider leaving everybody vulnerable to catch criminals, this is a incredibly high price to pay. I’d argue that the price is so high that even with evidence that this would help catch criminals we should still consider not doing it. However there is no evidence for that and my argument above explains why criminals would still be able to encrypt.
We should really stop implementing any security legislation without checking whether it actually achieves the stated goals.
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#19Not sure if this outweighs concerns with E2EE, but governments unfairly discriminate against people with reasonable viewpoints I.e. government isn't perfect. So people with contrarian views should have a way to express views/organize. Historically governments couldn't watch what people were saying/doing at all times and E2EE allows that to continue in a digital world.
Re: Ask HN: What are your arguments in favor of end-to-end encryption?
#20> how do you respond when someone brings up concerns of E2EE platforms being used for child sexual abuse imagery or terrorism?
The majority of criminals caught in transit doesn't warrant me giving up my privacy. They will still be caught in the same manners they are now, and it still offers them little protection over what law enforcement typically does.