Friday, August 21, 2015

Encryption is not for the bad guys

I've been reading a lot of articles about presidential candidates and their stances on encryption for online privacy. It befuddles me how ridiculous their arguments are. You hear things like "only evildoers use encryption" or "if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't be against this."

These are the same arguments that gave us our miranda rights, protection against illegal search and seizure, etc. Just because a citizen exercises their right to privacy does not mean they are hiding something, nor can it be taken as probable cause to remove their rights.

Saying that law enforcement needs to remove encryption so they can find bad guys is like saying houses need to have open windows so they can see in to houses. It's like saying we should do away with home security systems because only people with illegal items use them.

Any candidate that wants to keep me from protecting my privacy and security on the grounds of protecting me from some would-be terrorist is on a power trip and does not stand for the same constitution that I do.

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