28 September 2010

Backdoor Safety

For a long time now the government has had the ability to listen in on phone conversations in case they believed your midnight pizza order was secret code for activating a terrorist cell.  Law is now being developed to extend these tapping rights to the internet.  It would require Internet-based communication providers to be “technically capable of intercepting and decrypting [secure] messages.”1  A backdoor to previously secure communications would be installed, giving the door key to service providers and government.  This is a philosophical problem—secure communications are secure because there is no backdoor.  Ultimately though, if this law keeps me safe then I don’t mind.  I’ll have a large pepperoni pizza with breadsticks and a diet Coke, please.

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