Will all government agencies be required to comply? I would think that would be an issue.
The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
91–100 of 520 posts
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#92For those living in California: https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me
A copy of my note if you would like a template:
``` Dear Senator Feinstein,
I am deeply disappointed with your support of the EARN IT act and am expressing my deep concern and disapproval of such a bill.
Congruent with the recent report released by Stanford, I am expressing my deep disappointment in your sponsorship of the EARN IT act. I believe it represents a fundamental undermining of citizens right to privacy through strong encryption under the extremely divisive framing of "protecting the children". As a Father of two children myself, I do not believe that whatever incremental improvement to their safety, if any at all, justifies the undermining of encryption of ordinary citizens. In my opinion, this law actively undermines the fourth amendment in the digital realm and I must state that if you believe this is in my best interest, you have lost both my vote and my trust. ```
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These people seem incapable of understanding the existential threat to free society and democracy posed by limiting everyone's ability to communicate private thoughts. The existential threat this bill poses to free society and democracy is exactly why they're supporting it. It's not some accidental side effect. They're opposed to the existence of free society and democracy because it limits government power, which…
We had a free society and democracy before the internet.
We had a society in which all media was controlled by a handful of corporations who dictated what people saw and thought. That is not by any means a free society. Then along came Bulletin Board Systems and then the Internet, and all that changed. Legislation like the EARN IT Act is meant to turn back the clock to silence the voice of the people so that, once again, only the voice of the bourgeoisie can be heard.
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
E2EE is offered to all users, whether or not they are law-abiding. More precise is to say that E2EE is offered to users who are primarily law-abiding. Your points are well-heard, even by those in the IC. What isn't occurring, is a good-faith discussion on solving the issues faced by law enforcement and the IC related to the growing entropy of E2EE wielded at scale by folks, a large subset of whom are engaging in crim…
Law enforcement and IC are starting with the assumption that they are entitled to the best access they’ve ever had. Yes, things are going dark that they had access to 20 years ago, but 20 years before that they didn’t have access because most of the conversations were happening face to face. At that point they needed to rely on traditional boots on the ground police/intelligence work instead of electronic backdoors.…
they have more funding, power, and technology to perform their jobs than at any point in history, but cry about it because they can't spy on the entire planet by default. never compromise because the demands will never end.
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#95While this bill is strongly opposed by the Internet Society, ACLU, CDT, and EFF, the critiques I've read don't get much into the real "why" behind this legislation continuing to be pushed so forcefully. The pretext is, of course, "protect the children" and more generally law-and-order with a bonus side-helping of "stop those awful social media giants." While these justifications are (hopefully) obvious misdirection t…
it's almost comical how politicians always use the same tactic for destroying online privacy too - "think of the children!"
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#96No matter your opinion on the issue, the firearm lobby would probably serve as an effective model for fighting legislation like this on a long term basis.
The second amendment, like abortion, is a political wedge issue used by politicians to wield against their opponents. You’re not going to replicate that with issues requiring more nuance and that cannot be used as emotional cudgels.
The point though is that you can't afford minor losses here and there, because it's a war of attrition. Firearm lobby knows that the opposition's strategy is to just chip away at 2A rights slowly over the decades. Therefore, they can't afford to allow minor gun control victories here and there, or else a century later they are out of business and their supporters have no 2A rights anymore.
Same with this. You can't allow minor anti-encryption victories here and there chipping away at privacy/mathematical rights or your great grandkids won't have those freedoms.
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
E2EE is offered to all users, whether or not they are law-abiding. More precise is to say that E2EE is offered to users who are primarily law-abiding. Your points are well-heard, even by those in the IC. What isn't occurring, is a good-faith discussion on solving the issues faced by law enforcement and the IC related to the growing entropy of E2EE wielded at scale by folks, a large subset of whom are engaging in crim…
Law enforcement and IC are starting with the assumption that they are entitled to the best access they’ve ever had. Yes, things are going dark that they had access to 20 years ago, but 20 years before that they didn’t have access because most of the conversations were happening face to face. At that point they needed to rely on traditional boots on the ground police/intelligence work instead of electronic backdoors.…
> Why is it impossible for them to go back to doing things that way?
Because symmetry. Criminals using e2ee are not going back.
Not to support the act, but your comment doesn't really address the issue.
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#98The 3 Techdirt links in the article are especially helpful for catching up. EARN IT is another skirmish in the 30+ year old Crypto Wars. For those who care about defending privacy and encryption, exhaustion is not an option. Power-hungry governments must be viewed similarly to an APT in this context. They are following their very nature, and they will never stop inventing new approaches. There is no other option exce…
> For those who care about defending privacy and encryption, exhaustion is not an option.
For those who care about democracy, exhaustion is not an option.
This is why people who believe that they can be "neutral" or "in the middle" make me so angry.
"Two sides" doesn't hold when one side is actively trying to sabotage you.
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#99While this bill is strongly opposed by the Internet Society, ACLU, CDT, and EFF, the critiques I've read don't get much into the real "why" behind this legislation continuing to be pushed so forcefully. The pretext is, of course, "protect the children" and more generally law-and-order with a bonus side-helping of "stop those awful social media giants." While these justifications are (hopefully) obvious misdirection t…
> These people seem incapable of understanding the existential threat to free society and democracy posed by limiting everyone's ability to communicate private thoughts. The existential threat this bill poses to free society and democracy is exactly why they're supporting it. It's not some accidental side effect. They're opposed to the existence of free society and democracy because it limits government power, which…
With the paranoidal view you're placing yourself outside the realms of sensible discussion.
You can't really think that some politicians are knowingly and deliberating proposing an existential threat to "free society and democracy."
Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Law enforcement and IC are starting with the assumption that they are entitled to the best access they’ve ever had. Yes, things are going dark that they had access to 20 years ago, but 20 years before that they didn’t have access because most of the conversations were happening face to face. At that point they needed to rely on traditional boots on the ground police/intelligence work instead of electronic backdoors.…
> Why is it impossible for them to go back to doing things that way? Because symmetry. Criminals using e2ee are not going back. Not to support the act, but your comment doesn't really address the issue.
Why does that matter? Cops weren’t listening to those old face to face communications. That was practically impossible which is analogous to the technical impossibility of listening in on E2EE connections. Instead they were cracking cases in other ways (physical evidence, confidential sources, etc.)