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Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

globalencryption.org

11–20 of 240 posts

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#11
I've come to the conclusion that Taxes are incompatible with Encryption and Free Speech. If we're ever going to progress as a civilization, something other than ancient and frankly barbaric practice Taxes has to designed and implemented.

Every justification for usage or backdoor encryption is eventually rooted in monitoring financial transactions, or preserving the means in which a state can collect them. The "War on Terror" and "War on Drugs" are perfect examples of this.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#13
post #2

> ...at the EU-US Senior Officials Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs, held in Stockholm on 16 and 17 March, the minutes of which are now available. The delegations “… concurred on the need to mirror privacy by design with lawful access by design…,” apparent code language for mandating the undermining or removal of strong encryption practices. What is wrong with these people? How can anyone, let alone an educated, w…

In part because they have full access to the classified info about the threats that are being disrupted regularly

I find this much more likely than others' explanation that they're evil, that it's just about power, that there is a conspiracy among world leaders, etc.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#14

I've come to the conclusion that Taxes are incompatible with Encryption and Free Speech. If we're ever going to progress as a civilization, something other than ancient and frankly barbaric practice Taxes has to designed and implemented. Every justification for usage or backdoor encryption is eventually rooted in monitoring financial transactions, or preserving the means in which a state can collect them. The "War on…

Can you speak more to why you think taxes are barbaric? Is there an alternative?

They strike me as one of the cornerstones of civilization. I.e. the state builds things that are for the common good using those resources.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#15
post #2

> ...at the EU-US Senior Officials Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs, held in Stockholm on 16 and 17 March, the minutes of which are now available. The delegations “… concurred on the need to mirror privacy by design with lawful access by design…,” apparent code language for mandating the undermining or removal of strong encryption practices. What is wrong with these people? How can anyone, let alone an educated, w…

Well, if you were to ask in this very same forum if the trade-offs of private and permissionless communication, as granted by cryptography, should apply to money. You would get a much different answer.

So either a large part of HN has already been co-opted by this public campaign, or is uneducated/obtuse, or is able to trace a very different set of weights for what you can do with your expression but not your money.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#16

I've come to the conclusion that Taxes are incompatible with Encryption and Free Speech. If we're ever going to progress as a civilization, something other than ancient and frankly barbaric practice Taxes has to designed and implemented. Every justification for usage or backdoor encryption is eventually rooted in monitoring financial transactions, or preserving the means in which a state can collect them. The "War on…

Income tax is the problem. I wish governments solely relied on property taxes and user fees for funding, even if they had to increase them a lot to make up for the loss of income tax revenue.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#17
post #2

> ...at the EU-US Senior Officials Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs, held in Stockholm on 16 and 17 March, the minutes of which are now available. The delegations “… concurred on the need to mirror privacy by design with lawful access by design…,” apparent code language for mandating the undermining or removal of strong encryption practices. What is wrong with these people? How can anyone, let alone an educated, w…

Most of our leaders are much less bright and much more self-centered than almost anyone would imagine. The evidence repeatedly validates this, but we're reluctant to believe it. Many do come from relatively elite backgrounds but their knowledge and morality have surprising gaps.

Experiments show that groups of humans pick as their leader the loudest and most confident of the bunch.

You can imagine how this quirk of psychology affects power at all levels in our society.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#18
I have no problem with the police hacking into devices. They have the right to use bugs and find exploits just like they have the right to pick a safe of force a door.

But backdoors and unacceptable, that's like mandating that every house have microphones in every room connected to the police center

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#19
Interesting how our leaders see their role not as representing our interests, but in shaping our interests. There exists an entire subject in political science dealing with how to increase compliance with the schemes of regulators (see Nudge Theory).

The mistake they make is a classic short-run vs. long-run miscalculation. In the short-run, you can get away with these kinds of tactics to increase compliance. For example, running talking points on the MSM works well. They run the talking points and in the next days, everyone is parroting what they heard on the news, as if it's their own views.

But in the long-run, people will become more familiar with these tactics, such that they will become less effective (e.g. waning trust in the media). They are burning through the cultural & social capital which sustain these institutions (like the MSM or academia), and don't realize that once it runs out, they will no longer have these levers and buttons at their disposal.

At that point, the only way to increase compliance is with force. And once you go down that road, it becomes extremely clear to those wielding that force, just how precarious their situation is (e.g. Maduro assassination attempts). That is how totalitarianism takes root, fear of the people.

Re: Statement on EU-US Cooperation on Turning Public Opinion Against Encryption

#20

I've come to the conclusion that Taxes are incompatible with Encryption and Free Speech. If we're ever going to progress as a civilization, something other than ancient and frankly barbaric practice Taxes has to designed and implemented. Every justification for usage or backdoor encryption is eventually rooted in monitoring financial transactions, or preserving the means in which a state can collect them. The "War on…

Income tax is the problem. I wish governments solely relied on property taxes and user fees for funding, even if they had to increase them a lot to make up for the loss of income tax revenue.

But that would mean the “pay your fair share” people would actually have to pay their fair share, which they will never support. We all know that the fair share is a percentage of someone else’s income you feel entitled to and not a fee proportional to the amount of state services you use.
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