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Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

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Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#21

What I don't see in the writeup, is which senators are voting which way. I can tell from the writeup what Blumenthal thinks of it, but not any other committee participants. I really wish politicians would embrace a "we will make policies for things we can understand" motto.

> I really wish politicians would embrace a "we will make policies for things we can understand" motto. I don't think they'd make many policies if that were the case

That could be a feature or a bug I suppose.

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#22
> and it will let the use of encryption be evidence in lawsuits and criminal trials

How long until the comparisons to East Germany start? America is apparently gearing up for "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear", with many seemingly agreeing with this sentiment.

Perhaps more importantly, how have major journalistic networks not written about this bill in the worst possible light? When your sources want to use encryption, which is reasonable given some stories, this exact excerpt seems likely to bite someone in the ass.

While we're on the subject, I thought I'd heard that American polititians were using Signal? What happens when using encryption becomes ammunition for a lawsuit against them? Do they simply assume they have very, very good lawyers, and it'll all shake out because they don't believe they did (are going to do) anything wrong?

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#23
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HTTPS is not end-to-end encrypted (it kinda would be if we used P2P but we don't) so you can subpoena the server.

> HTTPS is not end-to-end encrypted (it kinda would be if we used P2P but we don't) so you can subpoena the server. How is https communication not end to end encrypted? And what’s the difference between subpoenaing a server vs an end user? The server is just another person/organization. Edit: Re-reading this I guess you mean that having a centra server acting as a middle man would probably not be end to end which I a…

I think they just mean they can just tell the company who owns the server to give them the data.

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#24
post #4

I haven't tried reading the text of The Act, most of the press about it focuses on E2EE-type messaging systems. So presumably if this passes, Signal would have to move offshore or something? (for example) But what about HTTPS certificates, would The Act have any effect on them? Would there be any legal issues with (for example) running your own Matrix server? And what about hosting providers (instead of platforms). W…

I very much doubt it. Law enforcement doesn’t seem too concerned about regular old HTTPS. I wonder why?

Companies like Cloudflare exist.

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#26
post #4

I haven't tried reading the text of The Act, most of the press about it focuses on E2EE-type messaging systems. So presumably if this passes, Signal would have to move offshore or something? (for example) But what about HTTPS certificates, would The Act have any effect on them? Would there be any legal issues with (for example) running your own Matrix server? And what about hosting providers (instead of platforms). W…

I very much doubt it. Law enforcement doesn’t seem too concerned about regular old HTTPS. I wonder why?

> I wonder why?

NSLs: https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters/faq

Dragnet/Geofence warrants: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/google-tracked-his-bike... and https://www.logically.ai/articles/geofence-warrants-on-the-r...

Dragnet/Mass-surveillance keyword warrants: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/04/googl...

Dragnet/mass-scanning of online storage: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/12/20/googl...

PRISM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)

RAMPART-A: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAMPART-A

Forced backdoors into "encrypted" email: https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/08/tutanota_backdoor_cou...

And who knows what else is still secret. A good rule of thumb is that if something's in the "cloud" or hosted on someone's computer that you don't directly control, you should assume that LEOs have access to it.

When all the data is centralized, you don't care about the end-point encryption. All you care about is having access to all the databases.

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#28
post #19

If this passes wouldn't this accelerate the decentralized encrypted communication movement? How can government stop that?

They can't stop the technology itself but they can throw you in jail for the simple act of using it. How dare you resist their surveillance, right?

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#29

What I don't see in the writeup, is which senators are voting which way. I can tell from the writeup what Blumenthal thinks of it, but not any other committee participants. I really wish politicians would embrace a "we will make policies for things we can understand" motto.

Here's the list of cosponsors, who will presumably vote for it. I don't see the list of committee members who voted for it.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/353...

Re: Key senators have voted for the anti-encryption EARN IT act

#30
This could only work if there are monopolies that work with the government. I don't think we're there yet, but it is concerning that lawmakers view this as a viable piece of legislation.

I wish we had a legislature who would recognize the importance of net neutrality to fostering competition. Instead, bills like this seem focused on ensuring monopolies so they can control how they operate.

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