An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT • Hacker News Board

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#261

Post by BiggsHoson » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:11 PM UTC

After this passes, imagine a perfect storm scenario where a widespread crisis--real, manufactured, or blown out of proportion and deemed an imminent threat by the powers that be--affords governments the cover to force everyone to stay at home and completely rely on the Internet in efforts to maintain some kind of sanity during "these challenging times".

Oh, wait...

From there, it is not hard to imagine that compliance with such government lockdowns could be deemed critical for "national security". Suddenly, decryption surveillance on large numbers of the population is done in response to a situation seemingly not even imagined (as far as we can tell) in the creation of this bill. They will not have to publicly ask for people to snitch on their neighbors--they will already know.

"But," some will say, "it is to keep us all safe." Replace a health crisis in the above scenario with...I don't know...maybe your desire to join a local protest over something.

When the LAED Act passes (I am pessimistically sure that "if" does not apply here) poetic justice would be for those "Republican" senators to be the first targets of state-sponsored hackers decimating the personal fortunes they have coincidentally amassed while holding office. To be honest, I am surprised that there is not a provision in the bill to somehow exempt Congress, just like there is with most other garbage legislation they say is best for us.

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#262

Post by calebm » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

lunchbreak wrote: post #174

A Twitter thread [1] from Matthew Green in this bill. Essentially he says that this bill is a dead on arrival bill which is designed to make EARN IT look like a fair compromise. And we better not fall for it [1] https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/12759760840231198...

This is called the "Door in the Face technique" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique)

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#263

Post by jstarfish » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:23 PM UTC

wan23 wrote: post #176

redis_mlc wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in the US.

That some concentration camps in other countries were also death camps is entirely the point. They are not the same thing, but they're just one step removed. In fact, thousands of people died in the American camps even though there was not an official policy of extermination.

Camps are a very whitewashed aspect of US history. Look at the forced marches and internment of Native Americans, POWs at Andersonville or anybody unfortunate enough to be in the custody of Joe Arpaio.

We have a nasty habit of creating scenarios where death is an inevitable consequence without it being the official policy.

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#264

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #224

lowdose wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you tell me more about that?

He means Trump. As seen in the leaked Podesta emails (Hillary’s campaign manager that was phished and has a password of “Pa$$w0rd” or such), Hillary Co asked their media contacts to put emphasis on Trump. To give him more coverage than the others running. They literally called him their “pied piper” candidate. They were so confident they could beat Trump that they helped prop him up. How Hillary skated by with many p…

[deleted]

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#265

Post by majormajor » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

banads wrote: post #231

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He means Trump. As seen in the leaked Podesta emails (Hillary’s campaign manager that was phished and has a password of “Pa$$w0rd” or such), Hillary Co asked their media contacts to put emphasis on Trump. To give him more coverage than the others running. They literally called him their “pied piper” candidate. They were so confident they could beat Trump that they helped prop him up. How Hillary skated by with many p…

Can someone explain why this is being heavily downvoted? Was something they said false?

This whole subthread is a giant off-topic diversion.

To be comparable to the original legislative situation here, Trump would've been introduced and controlled deliberately by Clinton.

So instead we just have a thread which changes the subject to an un-needed not-connected tired blame-fest.

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#266

Post by entropicdrifter » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

beardedwizard wrote: post #134

kiba wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But now? How can we hold a higher ground than China when our own police forces use the very same tactics against our own protesters? How can we accuse the other side of building concentration camps when we have our own? It's called having protestors in the first place. China wouldn't let you hear about it, or all you get is distorted information, which means you don't know what's going on in their society.

Like our protests?

Like our protests if the internet was heavily censored too

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#267

Post by MrWiffles » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:43 PM UTC

We should be prosecuting senators who bring such blatant violations of the Bill of Rights forward in the first place.

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#268

Post by novok » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:44 PM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #252

bitxbitxbitcoin wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We (HNers) might not fall for it but the proven technologically illiterate Representatives and their staff just might. This is why citizen's lobbying is so important. If the lawmakers are willfully ignorant - or in this case willfully arrogant about attacking encryption - the only thing that will get them to vote the right way is to hear from enough real constituents that the lawmakers feel like their reelection will…

If you live in California, let Senator Feinstein's office know you're not pleased with this. Unfortunately I don't think she's up for reelection this year, but if she doesn't retire next year, consider not voting for her in the next primary, Feinstein was one of the EARN-IT Act's sponsors, and a long-time opponent of cryptography.

At this point, with all of the tech industry in her state, I think she has enough of a permanent remember-harvy-milk voter block to blatantly ignore them as she has been doing for the past couple of decades.

She is one biggest pro-spy-on-everyone senators there is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Feinstein#Mass_surveill...

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#269

Post by gpanders » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

cheschire wrote: post #18

ashton314 wrote: post #13

Is there a way to see exactly which senators vote for a bill? I’m writing my senators now about how bad this bill would be, and I want to see if they follow through.

Yes! https://www.senate.gov/legislative/HowTo/how_to_votes.htm There's also third party sites, such as this one which offers email services. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes

govtrack.us offers RSS feeds for every legislator as well, so if you have an RSS reader already set up you can just add the feeds for your representatives (you don't even need to create an account on govtrack!)

Re: An even worse anti-encryption bill than EARN IT

#270

Post by carapace » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

kelnos wrote: post #94

austincheney wrote: post #21

The solution to policies like this is serverless or point-to-point systems. As an application publisher you cannot be held liable or obligated towards that which you do not possess and are, by design, not capable of possessing. As an example consider copyright law and BitTorrent. BitTorrent provides a software application and protocol but not servers or services, so the BitTorrent software is never liable for the cop…

The solution is to vote out idiots who support things like this, and get the government actually working for its citizens again, not against it. That's hard, and feels damn near impossible sometimes, but it's required. You can't fix social problems with clever technological workarounds.

It's not even hard, people are just complacent.

Here in the USA we are literally governed by the folks who show up.