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posted by CoolHand on Friday April 15 2016, @12:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the retarded-big-brother dept.

El Reg :

Analysis In the wake of the FBI's failed fight against Apple, Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) have introduced a draft bill that would effectively ban strong crypto.

The bill would require tech and communications companies to allow law enforcement with a court order to decrypt their customers' data. Last week a draft copy of the bill, dubbed the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, was leaked, but the new version is even worse than the discussion draft.

In the draft version, court orders could only be issued for a crime resulting in death or serious bodily harm, terrorism and espionage, crimes against minors, serious violent felonies or Federal drug crimes. In the final version, those caveats are gone, so any court order will allow the police to access the data they want.

The bill would apply to "device manufacturers, software manufacturers, electronic communication services, remote communication services, providers of wire or electronic communication services, providers of remote communication services, or any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or to process or store data." That's a pretty wide net.

"No entity or individual is above the law," said Feinstein. "The bill we have drafted would simply provide that, if a court of law issues an order to render technical assistance or provide decrypted data, the company or individual would be required to do so.

"Today, terrorists and criminals are increasingly using encryption to foil law enforcement efforts, even in the face of a court order. We need strong encryption to protect personal data, but we also need to know when terrorists are plotting to kill Americans."

Idiots, I tell you, they're a pair of idiots.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by stormwyrm on Friday April 15 2016, @01:04AM

    by stormwyrm (717) on Friday April 15 2016, @01:04AM (#331962) Journal
    Black hats everywhere rejoice as all electronic commerce and banking in the United States is forced to use weak and easily breakable encryption, and a subsequent wave of electronic crime ensues. What these feckless legislators seem to fail to understand that these same techniques that permit terrorists and criminals to communicate without easy eavesdropping from law enforcement are also used to allow everyone else to perform secure electronic commerce and banking. You can't permit the latter without also permitting the former. The misunderstanding seems almost wilful in this case however.
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Friday April 15 2016, @01:10AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 15 2016, @01:10AM (#331969) Journal

    The misunderstanding seems almost wilful in this case however.

    Fuck Hanlon's razor** in this case, it is wilful - the bill passed through various incarnations until tabled.
    It is unimaginable that nobody told them it's impossible to eat their cake and have it too.

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    **(ouch!!)

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    https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @12:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 15 2016, @12:11PM (#332185)

      Welcome to Washington, D.C., where reality is truly a quantum state. Whoa, we're the United Quantum States!

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday April 15 2016, @12:22PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday April 15 2016, @12:22PM (#332188) Journal

        Welcome to Washington, D.C., where reality is truly a quantum state.

        You have a nasty case of entanglement, it seems.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford