SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
The FBI's director says the agency is collecting data that he will present next year in hopes of sparking a national conversation about law enforcement's increasing inability to access encrypted electronic devices.
Speaking on Friday at the American Bar Association conference in San Francisco, James Comey says the agency was unable to access 650 of 5,000 electronic devices investigators attempted to search over the last 10 months.
Comey says encryption technology makes it impossible in a growing number of cases to search electronic devices. He says it's up to U.S. citizens to decide whether to modify the technology.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-chief-calls-national-talk-over-encryption-vs-safety-n624101
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 07 2016, @04:16AM
How about we talk about the constitution? Instead of trying to achieve some mythical "balance" fabricated by rights-violating government thugs, how about we just let the constitution be our balance? You know, like the fourth amendment and the first amendment (trying to ban certain kinds of encryption would certainly violate freedom of speech).
And how about we stop pretending that the fourth amendment does anything more than allow the government to attempt to find what it wants if it gets a valid warrant? The fourth amendment does not say that the government has the power to ban any technology that makes it extremely difficult or even impossible to find something once the government has a valid warrant. The fourth amendment only allows the government to try to get what it wants; it does not mandate that their success be guaranteed, easy, or even possible. The idea that we should ban certain technologies because they make the government's job harder is completely at odds with the principles this country is supposed to stand for and the highest law of the land. It's much better that many guilty people go free than for everyone's rights to be violated in the name of safety at the hands of a government that is supposed to respect their rights.