I blame prime numbers, even co-primes should be banned. Please contact your representative and help us free the world from evil math.
It's worked before: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill
Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
21–30 of 312 posts
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#22Wow, I read this article on Sunday, and had I not seen this post I never would have realized the Times no longer stood by what they said.
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#23I blame prime numbers, even co-primes should be banned. Please contact your representative and help us free the world from evil math.
[deleted]
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#24You could plan terrorist activity using postcards. Should we ban the Post Office? You could use phone calls from pay phones (where they still exist) and people used to do that all the time to plan crimes. You could go on vacation together and plan something. You could use voice or text chat in an online game to plan stuff. The people in charge of these organizations are not the suicide bombers; the head folks know full well what to use to avoid getting caught.
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to elaborate?
At the risk of putting words into other someone else's mouth, it's a shame that the level of education/awareness regarding the fundamentals of how society works is so lacking. Without encryption, internet doesn't work. Without internet, banking and e-commerce doesn't work. Really, not a single user-identifying service can function without encryption. Also, encryption is based on math and logic. You can't really prohi…
To play devil's advocate, saying "but you can never ban encryption anyway" sets up a false dichotomy. You're right, there are open source projects that will survive no matter what you do. But you can certainly force or convince companies like Apple and Google to prevent those apps from being available in their stores, and you can force large companies like Facebook to give you a backdoor.
Sure, someone tech savvy can get around that, but not everyone. Just look at how many criminal cases end up finding emails explicitly talking about plans and crimes. So there are people nowadays not even using encryption when committing crimes. If you make encryption-by-default impossible, the amount of unencrypted messages will increase, and you'll have gained those.
Now whether that's good or bad is a separate discussion; I tend to think it's bad, but that's a more nuanced argument than "you can't ban it, so don't do anything about it".
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
The language seems pretty reasonable... "The attackers are believed to have communicated using encryption technology, according to European officials who had been briefed on the investigation but were not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear whether the encryption was part of widely used communications tools, like WhatsApp, which the authorities have a hard time monitoring, or something more elaborate. Inte…
Sure, if you think unproven hearsay in NYT that we all ought to take for granted is "reasonable". If the authorities believe it was the encryption to blame, then they should come out and say it outright - with details, of course. They shouldn't hide under the "anonymous officials" tag which "believe" it was encryption the culprit that stopped them from learning about the attacks, and nothing else. It could've been ju…
Seriously, yes. "News" outlets for decades have printed "anonymous officials" and "inside government sources" with devastating opinions.. even worse is "So and so was CALLED XYZ by ... " this is like assigning a variable in programming, X=Y.. talk about programming the mass consciousness!
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#27What I found interesting is the method of communication was outlined in "Homeland" by Cory Doctorow (Or perhaps it was in "Little Brother"). I suppose we need to outlaw books now also.
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#28> writing messages via in-game functions, like spelling words with dropped items or shooting walls
I'm kinda ashamed I haven't thought of that.
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Encryption is a basic human right. The freedom to speak without being judged.
So is life, what do you do when 2 basic rights clash? It's definitely a tricky question, and I certainly don't have the answer.
Encryption or the use thereof doesn't threaten your life. Screwdrivers or the use thereof don't either, however if someone misuses the screwdriver and stabs you in the temple you will die.
Does this mean we should outlaw the use of screwdrivers ?
Re: Times Pulls Article Blaming Encryption in Paris Terror Attack
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The language seems pretty reasonable... "The attackers are believed to have communicated using encryption technology, according to European officials who had been briefed on the investigation but were not authorized to speak publicly. It was not clear whether the encryption was part of widely used communications tools, like WhatsApp, which the authorities have a hard time monitoring, or something more elaborate. Inte…
Sure, if you think unproven hearsay in NYT that we all ought to take for granted is "reasonable". If the authorities believe it was the encryption to blame, then they should come out and say it outright - with details, of course. They shouldn't hide under the "anonymous officials" tag which "believe" it was encryption the culprit that stopped them from learning about the attacks, and nothing else. It could've been ju…
What's wrong with newspaper reporting hearsay, while describing it as hearsay?
NYT didn't seem to pass it as anything else than it is. What's your logic here? Should all anonymous sources be banned? Or only the sources with opinions that you don't like?