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The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

cyberlaw.stanford.edu

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Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#111

Post by bejelentkezni »

emmelaich wrote: post #99
kragen wrote: post #41

Earlier 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…

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."

Why not?

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#112

Post by userbinator »

jimbob45 wrote: post #8

Graham (R-SC) Blumenthal (D-CT)* Durbin (D-IL) Grassley (R-IA)* Feinstein (D-CA) Cornyn (R-TX) Whitehouse (D-RI) Hawley (R-MO) Hirono (D-HI) Kennedy (D-LA)* Casey (D-PA) Blackburn (R-TN) Masto (D-NV)* Collins (R-ME) Hassan (D-NH)* Ernst (R-IA) Warner (D-VA) Hyde-Smith (R-MI) Murkowski (R-AK)* Portman (R-OH)* * are up for re-election this year. Bit of a pain to find this information really - couldn't find a single new…

Exactly 10 on each side --- that's about as non-partisan as it gets.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#113

Post by charcircuit »

emmelaich wrote: post #105
charcircuit wrote: post #61

We should design cryptosystems that include functionality that support warrants as opposed to being antiencryption and removing encryption.

Here's a thought. Private[0] keys could be held in escrow, with sss[1] being used to decrypt, publically. The sss shares could be held by different branches of government. (state,federal,exeecutive,legislative,judicial) Please shoot my idea down. [0] or 'backdoor' keys [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing (or similar)

Personally I think the company should also hold a key. They would use this key after verifying that a warrant is valid. I also think giving out hardware keys with rate limiting / logging features along with key rotation / revocation is essential to reducing abuse.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#114

Post by vorpalhex »

bpodgursky wrote: post #32
cyberlurker wrote: post #7

No 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.

It would require people willing to be single-issue voters, the way many are on abortion or firearms. Would anyone here switch party votes to a candidate who sided their way on tech privacy — even if they disagreed on other core principles like abortion, gun rights, religion in schools, etc? Maybe a few, but I'm not convinced many.

Tie it to existing wedge issues. "Do you want Facebook knowing every time you buy a gun/get an abortion?"

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#115

Post by belorn »

mrandish wrote: post #10

While 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…

> While 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 original bill was originally pushed because certain republican accounts was banned from certain social media platforms. It is explained pretty well on its Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EARN_IT_Act#Events_leading_to_...).

One potential reason why it is still getting pushed is that politicians on both sides of the fence is still afraid of the power that social media have, and they are using the pretext of "protect the children" in order to get bipartisan support and getting some distance to the historical events that lead up to the creation of the bill.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#116

Post by charcircuit »

seanw444 wrote: post #83
charcircuit wrote: post #61

We should design cryptosystems that include functionality that support warrants as opposed to being antiencryption and removing encryption.

Sounds like junk crypto.

There is utility to being are to prevent random people and companies from eavesdropping your conversations. Crypto has important security benefits that we can't just give up.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#117

Post by doublepg23 »

catlifeonmars wrote: post #72
matheusmoreira wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law enforcement issues don't override all other concerns. If life is difficult for them, good. That's the point. It should be difficult in order to prevent abuse of power. Encryption is a perfectly reasonable reaction to governments that give themselves the right to surveil the entire planet. Nobody really cares that it makes their life harder. That's exactly what it's supposed to do. It should be incredibly hard if…

> This is how it's supposed to be. According to you, which is OPs point exactly. The discussion needs to be framed in a way that stakeholders are walking in common ground, not yelling at each other at a distance from their respective ideological ivory towers. FWIW I happen to agree with you, but IMO “this is how it’s supposed to be” is not a productive argument.

Why should we give an inch to these people when they have been shown to violate the publics’ trust many many times?

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#118

Post by matheusmoreira »

catlifeonmars wrote: post #72
matheusmoreira wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Law enforcement issues don't override all other concerns. If life is difficult for them, good. That's the point. It should be difficult in order to prevent abuse of power. Encryption is a perfectly reasonable reaction to governments that give themselves the right to surveil the entire planet. Nobody really cares that it makes their life harder. That's exactly what it's supposed to do. It should be incredibly hard if…

> This is how it's supposed to be. According to you, which is OPs point exactly. The discussion needs to be framed in a way that stakeholders are walking in common ground, not yelling at each other at a distance from their respective ideological ivory towers. FWIW I happen to agree with you, but IMO “this is how it’s supposed to be” is not a productive argument.

Nobody should have to walk common ground with the likes of the CIA and NSA. They should have to walk common ground with us. Whatever people decide, they should obey unquestioningly and without complaint. We don't want to hear about how encryption makes their job harder. They need to deal with it and stop trying to undermine our freedoms. It's honestly offensive that they're trying to regulate this stuff for the nth time despite public resistance.

We owe no apology to anyone. They're the ones trying to undermine the whole world's security and freedom. They've grown addicted to total access and want to maintain their power which they frequently abuse. Nothing will ever justify it, certainly not their constant "but it makes our job harder" sob story.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#119

Post by rgbrenner »

emmelaich wrote: post #99
kragen wrote: post #41

Earlier 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…

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."

There are politicians that support the overthrow of US democracy and the instatement of a dictator. A really obvious example: Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor. He's said the US military should overthrow the government. Literally.. those are the words from his mouth.

Im not going to list a bunch of politicians... but Flynn will say it outright. So your assumption is clearly wrong.

Re: The EARN IT act is back, and it’s more dangerous than ever

#120

Post by charcircuit »

randomhodler84 wrote: post #88
charcircuit wrote: post #61

We should design cryptosystems that include functionality that support warrants as opposed to being antiencryption and removing encryption.

No we shouldn’t. Never. Get that idea out of your head. It can never be secure or safe. This path leads to bodies hanging from the town square.

So you want encryption so criminals who would have otherwise been hung to be able to evade the law? It is pretty clear to me how a government may not approve of encryption for this usage.
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