Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
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Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#2Nice read
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#3In short: since the EU is trying to introduce legislation to monitor private communication, the author states that it's a moral duty of everyone to start encrypting their communications (instant messaging in particular), as a form of civil disobedience. It works when many (preferably most) people disobey.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#4Latest news is Gerard Darmanin, french minister of the interior, is trying to use the latest attack in a french school to ban encryption or at least force encrypted messaging vendors to add backdoors for governments:
https://www.numerama.com/tech/1533652-attaque-a-arras-darman...
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#5> you would be morally obliged to disobey
In days of yore my CS law module was taught by a QC - that's a high ranking barrister in the UK - who explained the world of difference between the "The Rule of Law" and "the law" in a class called "jurisprudence".
Rule of Law (capitalised conceptual) is there as permanent ground truth in contrast to the ephemeral du-jure laws.
At times I still struggle with that profound counter-intuitive idea; that if one deeply, passionately believes in the necessity of The Law and all of society's institutions, one must with equal passion break laws and throw rocks at the police when they are tools of tyrants, idiots and dumb laws.
Indeed today I think that opposition to technological tyranny has become the mark of the true conservative, and that defenders of common sense and simple human dignity are forced to assume the "radical" position.
High ideals are very expensive.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#6The easiest way to combat "you have nothing to hide" is if you were in a country taken over by dictators or terrorists, those leaders don't care and cannot be reasoned with. They will use the backdoor at any time to punish dissent or any misalignment with their rules.
And if people say, "but our country is free", tell them that if your country was not, how would you get back to freedom? Is your software and hardware free and open so that you could do this?
If the E.U. really made Chat Control, it would require a DRM that would restrict non-signed OS from running. How would you install freedom software under this situation?
The only way is to prevent the implementation of locked hardware in the first place.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#7Latest news is Gerard Darmanin, french minister of the interior, is trying to use the latest attack in a french school to ban encryption or at least force encrypted messaging vendors to add backdoors for governments: https://www.numerama.com/tech/1533652-attaque-a-arras-darman...
Right. If everyone hides in encryption, they'll outlaw encryption.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#8The author advocates using encryption as an ethical duty, OK. But it would not be an effective form of civil disobedience. This is unrealistic:
> We should all use PGP, SSL or equivalent tools; VPNs, Tor and/or SSH tunnelling; IPFS, or other distributed file systems — and ditch proprietary OS's in favour of Linux or truly free Android distros.
This is not anything the general public, for whom today their mobile phones with Play Services are the default device and things like WhatsApp their means of communication, is going to do. All the state needs to do is force weaker encryption on the common apps offered on the Play Store, and that covers the vast, vast majority of the population.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#9A bit of a tangent, but I followed the link at the bottom to https://stopchatcontrol.eu/ and while I want to take the site seriously and agree with the message, I can't with that silly usage of emojis (scroll down). Seems more like a joke website than a serious piece of advocacy it purports to be.
The original blog post is good though.
Re: Encrypting private data and private communications is now an ethical duty
#10In short: since the EU is trying to introduce legislation to monitor private communication, the author states that it's a moral duty of everyone to start encrypting their communications (instant messaging in particular), as a form of civil disobedience. It works when many (preferably most) people disobey.
> the author states that it's a moral duty of everyone to start encrypting their communications as a form of civil disobedience. It works when many (preferably most) people disobey.
I'd certainly support it. What he's calling for - it's similar to the dominant spirit in the US after the Edward Snowden revelations. It resulted in a lot of ethical and beneficial stuff happening in a relatively short amount of time.
Not just in tech, even news orgs lost much of their aversion to covering surveillance abuses. At least for a time.