Hi,

It seems to me that having an honest discussion about our biases, goals,
and assumptions might help.

My goal: I want the Internet to continue to grow in a safe way.  It
can't do that if people don't trust the infrastructure.  There are EU
studies that discuss what happens when people experience some form of
harm on the Internet.[1]  Encryption has played a role in reducing that
harm.  But it can also increase harm for the very reasons stated in that
article.  Not acknowledging this would be absurd.

Please now see below.

On 3/26/15 9:42 PM, Stephen wrote:

>> Better said, and at effective length, by David Golumbia
>>
>>    Opt-Out Citizenship: End-to-End Encryption and
>>    Constitutional Governance
>>    http://www.uncomputing.org/?p=272
> Had a quick flick. Arguments based on a presumption of "perfect
> end-to-end encryption" are utterly useless as they are counterfactual.
> Anything one likes can follow from a false assumption like that.
>

Let me see if I understand this statement correctly: this group is
working toward a world in which we encrypt our communications, and when
someone discusses what that world might look like, you claim it's
"counterfactual"?  That's not a reasonable argument.

Ted claims that the author argues that there is no need for a right to
privacy.  I didn't read that in the article at all, but rather that the
Constitution must be taken as a whole: the same document that protects
our rights also provides various balancing tests to protect the rights
of others.

On the other hand, the piece missing from that article is the need for
confidence in the infrastructure, and Ted goes in this direction: if you
give the good guys means to gain access to communications, in all
likelihood you're giving the bad guys those very same capabilities. 
That has been the cornerstone of the IETF position for a very long time,
and it holds for whatever definition of "good guys" and "bad guys" you
might have.  Weakening end-to-end encryption weakens confidence in the
infrastructure.  This guy doesn't care because his focus is about the
balance of needs from a legal sense.  But these issues cannot be viewed
in isolation from one another.

Eliot
[1] Riek, et. al, /Understanding the Influence of Cybercrime Risk on the
E-Service Adoption of European Internet Users/, WEIS 2014. 
http://weis2014.econinfosec.org/papers/RiekBoehmeMoore-WEIS2014.pdf

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature

_______________________________________________
perpass mailing list
[email protected]
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/perpass

Reply via email to