{"id":24190,"date":"2019-12-30T15:10:04","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T20:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=24190"},"modified":"2019-12-30T15:10:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T20:10:04","slug":"fancy-new-terms-same-old-backdoors-the-encryption-debate-in-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2019\/12\/30\/fancy-new-terms-same-old-backdoors-the-encryption-debate-in-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Fancy New Terms, Same Old Backdoors: The Encryption Debate in 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async type=text\/javascript src=https:\/\/static.dclick.io\/js\/ad.min.js><\/script><br \/>\n<a class=\"attachment wp-att-24191\" href=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=24191\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-24191\" src=\"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/defend-encryption-grey-1-1024x512-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"802\" height=\"401\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Almost every week, we hear about another\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/11\/equifax-data-breach-update-backsliding\">corporate data breach<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/01\/federal-government-offers-case-study-bad-email-tracking\">government attack on privacy<\/a>. For anyone who wants real privacy online, encryption is the essential component.<\/p>\n<p>Governments around the world\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/07\/doj-and-fbi-show-no-signs-correcting-past-untruths-their-new-attacks-encryption\">keep trying to break encryption<\/a>, seeking to enhance the power of their law enforcement agencies. They\u2019ve tried for years to require companies to build backdoors into encrypted software and devices, which would enable them to listen in on potentially any digital conversation. The FBI has coined a phrase, \u201cgoing dark,\u201d that it has used since the late &#8217;90s to describe their \u201cproblem\u201d\u2014the lack of an omnipresent, all-powerful surveillance tool.<\/p>\n<p>But encryption with special access for a select group isn\u2019t some kind of superpower\u2014it\u2019s\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2018\/05\/there-no-middle-ground-encryption\">just broken encryption<\/a>. The same security flaws used by U.S. police will be used by oppressive regimes and criminal syndicates.<\/p>\n<p>The only innovation in 2019 has been rhetorical\u2014anti-encryption authorities are determined not to call a backdoor a backdoor. Instead, we saw a proposal from UK intelligence agency GCHQ\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/01\/give-ghost-backdoor-another-name\">to add \u201cghost\u201d listeners to encrypted messaging applications.<\/a>\u00a0Later in the year, we saw\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/09\/carnegie-experts-should-know-defending-encryption-isnt-absolutist-position\">a revival of the idea of \u201ckey escrow,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0a discredited idea about how to square the circle on encryption.<\/p>\n<p>Other approaches\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/11\/why-adding-client-side-scanning-breaks-end-end-encryption\">included ideas like \u201cclient-side scanning,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0which is also sometimes called \u201cendpoint filtering\u201d or \u201clocal processing.\u201d This array of terms describes a system where a messaging application maintains end-to-end encryption, but when users upload images or other content, it can be first checked locally against a set of \u201chashes\u201d or fingerprints for contraband. These strategies have been proposed as solutions to the problem of child exploitation images, a problem that the DOJ highlighted frequently in the latter half of 2019, trying to reframe the use of encryption as enabling criminal behavior.<\/p>\n<p>The promise of end-to-end encryption is, ultimately, a simple value proposition: it\u2019s the idea that\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/07\/dont-let-encrypted-messaging-become-hollow-promise\">no one but you and your intended recipients<\/a>\u00a0can read your messages. There\u2019s no amount of wordsmithing that can get around that. It\u2019s high time to start convening conferences and panels of experts to research and publish ideas about how effective law enforcement can co-exist with tools for privacy and strong encryption, rather than trying to break them.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Keeping Promises on Encryption<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Government pressure hasn\u2019t caused tech companies to abandon encryption, at least not yet. In March, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/03\/privacy-focused-facebook-well-believe-it-when-we-see-it\">publicly embraced end-to-end encryption<\/a>\u00a0for all of Facebook\u2019s messaging products. That sounds great, in theory, but the proof is in the pudding\u2014we still don\u2019t know how Facebook might seek to monetize an end-to-end encrypted service. There are also policy and competition concerns about the\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/03\/privacy-focused-facebook-well-believe-it-when-we-see-it\">company\u2019s intention<\/a>\u00a0to merge WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.<\/p>\n<p>But those policy concerns might be rendered moot if the company backpedals under the glare of increasing government demands. In October, top law enforcement officials in the U.S., U.K., and Australia called on Zuckerberg\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/10\/open-letter-governments-us-uk-and-australia-facebook-all-out-attack-encryption\">to simply stop his plan to encrypt<\/a>\u00a0the merged messenger products. Again waving the flag of child safety, law enforcement agencies in these three countries made clear their ultimate goal: access to every conversation, on every digital device. Civil society hasn\u2019t been silent. We joined together with more than 100 other NGOs to\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/cdt.org\/insights\/open-letter-facebooks-end-to-end-encryption-plans\/\">write our own letter<\/a>\u00a0urging Facebook to proceed with its plans. In December, Facebook itself\u00a0<a class=\"steem-keychain-checked\" href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Facebook-Response-to-Barr-Patel-Dutton-Wolf-.pdf\">signaled<\/a>\u00a0it won\u2019t bow to that pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The stakes couldn\u2019t be higher. Whichever way the social media giant moves on encryption, other companies are sure to follow.<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<div class=\"dclickad\" data-client=\"darth-azrael\" data-slot=\"1577736564428\">\n<\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2019\/12\/fancy-new-terms-same-old-backdoors-encryption-debate-2019\">Fancy New Terms, Same Old Backdoors: The Encryption Debate in 2019 | Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost every week, we hear about another\u00a0corporate data breach\u00a0or\u00a0government attack on privacy. For anyone who wants real privacy online, encryption is the essential component. Governments around the world\u00a0keep trying to break encryption, seeking to enhance the power of their law enforcement agencies. They\u2019ve tried for years to require companies to build backdoors into encrypted software and devices, which would enable them to listen in on potentially any digital conversation. The FBI has coined a phrase, \u201cgoing dark,\u201d that it has used since the late &#8217;90s to describe their \u201cproblem\u201d\u2014the lack of an omnipresent, all-powerful surveillance tool. But encryption with special access for a select group isn\u2019t some kind of superpower\u2014it\u2019s\u00a0just broken encryption. The same security flaws used by U.S. police will be used by oppressive regimes and criminal syndicates. The only innovation in 2019 has been rhetorical\u2014anti-encryption authorities are determined not to call a backdoor a backdoor. Instead, we saw a proposal from UK intelligence agency GCHQ\u00a0to add \u201cghost\u201d listeners to encrypted messaging applications.\u00a0Later in the year, we saw\u00a0a revival of the idea of \u201ckey escrow,\u201d\u00a0a discredited idea about how to square the circle on encryption. Other approaches\u00a0included ideas like \u201cclient-side scanning,\u201d\u00a0which is also sometimes called \u201cendpoint filtering\u201d or \u201clocal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3580,625,647],"class_list":["post-24190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-backdoors","tag-eff","tag-encryption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}