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Purveyor

(29,876 posts) Sat Oct 10, 2015, 05:52 PM Oct 2015

Federal Judge Stokes Debate About Data Encryption

By Ellen Nakashima October 10 at 5:22 PM
A federal judge in New York is expanding to the courts the hot debate over whether tech companies should be forced to find ways to unlock encrypted smartphones and other devices for law enforcement.

In an unusual move, Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York released an order Friday that suggests he would not issue a government-sought order to compel the tech giant Apple to decrypt a customer’s device.

But before he can rule, he said, he wants Apple to explain whether the government’s request would be “unduly burdensome.”

(Read the magistrate judge’s order.)

Orenstein, one of a handful of magistrates across the country who are activists in the surveillance debate, is trying to stoke a similar discussion on encryption, colleagues and analysts say.

“He’s clearly a judge who is interested in opening topics to discussion in the judiciary, but he also thinks the larger public should know about the debate,” said Brian Owsley, a former magistrate judge in Texas who issued rulings that heightened privacy protections for the government’s use of cellphone-tracking devices.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-judge-stokes-debate-about-data-encryption/2015/10/10/c75da20e-6f6f-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html

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Federal Judge Stokes Debate About Data Encryption (Original Post) Purveyor Oct 2015 OP

Because people using math on their own data is a natural right cprise Oct 2015 #1

A note about Skype's encryption: cprise Oct 2015 #2

cprise

(8,445 posts)

1. Because people using math on their own data is a natural right

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Sun Oct 11, 2015, 01:31 AM

Oct 2015

whether or not that math has the effect of concealment. The government cannot force us to use their (subverted) algorithms; It runs against basic Enlightenment principles.

They may find a way to get Apple to decrypt devices under a warrant, but that depends on how securely Apple has used the encryption algorithms: If Apple's 'cloud' servers only facilitate a proper key exchange between two users, then Apple can't do anything. OTOH, if each user is exchanging keys with Apple's servers such that Apple holds the users' keys (in unencrypted form) then they could decrypt their customers' private communications at will.

If the latter is true, and Apple started to send private info to the government, it would goad people to move away from American-designed products and/or replace Apple's messaging software with the stuff you see at The Guardian Project:
https://guardianproject.info/

cprise

(8,445 posts)

2. A note about Skype's encryption:

Reply to Purveyor (Original post)

Sun Oct 11, 2015, 01:48 AM

Oct 2015

Some years ago Microsoft bought the (European) Skype for an incredible sum of $8 billion. Shortly thereafter, Skype's decentralized architecture (which allowed independent key exchange) was with great effort and added expense changed to a centralized architecture wherein Microsoft's servers could see all Skype communications. So a product that originally succeeded because it was peer-to-peer suddenly had its technology turned inside-out.

The reasons given for the switch were never convincing. But... This was also the time frame when Skype was added to the NSA's PRISM spying program.

Skype is very popular still. Yet, all the grumbling we hear from the government is about Apple...

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