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Secrets

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by Ed Mahoney in cyber war, Geek Horror

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Tags

Apple, FBI, privacy, security

secret

I understand everyone believes there should be a balance between security and privacy.  Seems sensible.  Bill Gates came out today in favor of the FBI over Apple, but then he’s been making business decisions counter to consumer needs for decades.  I myself am so impassionately middle of the road on most topics that I wonder sometimes if I’m not actually dead.  It’s great when everyone can win a trophy but you cannot avoid the reality that there are winners and losers.  I believe the current Apple/FBI debate is one of those binary scenarios.  It’s as difficult for me as anyone else to plant my flag when I want both privacy and security.  The following example though helps clarify my position.

The 4th Amendment provides both privacy protection, and presents the guidelines for the State to void those privacies given reasonable cause.  Assuming proper due process, the State wins.  This is a nice template for balance, but it doesn’t stop there.  The 5th Amendment protects us from self incrimination.  “I plead the 5th.”  Taken together, people must allow the State entry into their home for a warranted and reasonable search of evidence of a crime.  However, people are not obligated to point out where they hid the evidence.  “Oh, it’s under the seat cushion.”

There are two centuries of legal precedent supporting these Amendments to where most of us are fairly knowledgeable of the rules, without being actual lawyers.  Let me dumb this discussion down though even further.  Let me use the term secrets instead of privacy.  We all have secrets.  Not just our banking PIN code but family history and deep, dark fantasies.  I know that there are things I would never consider telling anyone, and I’m about as transparent as a person can possibly be.  Have you read my prostate chronicles?  I might be wavering a bit from the core Apple/FBI topic since not all secrets necessarily contain criminal content, but I believe the principle points remain intact.  I’m allowed to have secrets.

I’m not even that strong of a privacy advocate.  See above on my middle of the roadness.  For example, I don’t consider privacy an inalienable right.  We were born naked in a garden, so God wasn’t that big on personal privacy either.  Clearly, there was very little personal privacy when we were living together as tribes in caves.  But like anyone else in western civilization, I’ve grown accustomed to certain privileges and I do want privacy.  Even if I didn’t, the information age ascribes so much value to data integrity that encryption is paramount to how our society and economy function.  It’s not until I substitute the word privacy with the word secret that I begin to understand where I fall on this topic. The State can try to search but I can try to hide.  Tell me I’m wrong on this.

Cryptography and cryptanalysis have been a cat and mouse game played throughout millennia.  Technology plays the lead role.  I understand that if the State can decrypt my communications, they already have legal justification to do so.  My information is only as safe as my encryption is strong.  But if they can’t decrypt my data, I don’t have to hand them the keys.  That’s like showing them the evidence is hidden under the seat cushion.  And they can’t outlaw encryption.  That’s like saying I can’t have secrets.  Who doesn’t have secrets?

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A Bad Apple

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by Ed Mahoney in cyber war, Geek Horror, Politics

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

all writs act, privacy, tim cook open letter

apple n worm

All you need to know in terms of Tim Cook vs the FBI is Donald Trump’s position on the matter.  Trump believes Apple is in the wrong and should be forced to provide the government with a backdoor hack into their iPhone.  Because he believes national security trumps personal privacy.  This is actually true – in China.  And Russia.  If you already take issue with this self-made celebrity, then you can assume Apple is right.

To be fair, and less political, personal privacy is a complex issue.  The U.S. Constitution references no protections for personal privacy.  The Bill of Rights however references numerous Amendments that allude to privacy.  Privacy of beliefs, privacy in your home, privacy of person and possessions against unreasonable search and seizure.  I think the list goes on but I’m not a lawyer and can’t defend any of them.  I do know Americans expect a certain degree of privacy and the government has the authority and corresponding legal process to transcend our privacy given sufficient warrant.  In this case, the FBI is leveraging the All Writs Act to demand that Apple engineer a new IOS version that disables the feature that would wipe the iPhone data after 10 unsuccessful login attempts.  This would allow the FBI to subsequently hack into the iPhone with a brute force password attack.

Precedent is set that allows the government to do this.  Shoot, there is even a recent case where the U.S. Attorney’s Office forced another smart phone manufacturer to unlock a screenlock.  But Apple is refusing to comply.  Tim Cook wrote an open letter explaining why.  He frames his argument from his customers’ perspective.  But just think about the consequences for his company.  Apple is being forced to weaken their product in a global market and their competitors are not being forced to do this.  They will immediately be at a competitive disadvantage in a global market for their most successful product.  Game over for the iPhone.

And recall, corporations are deemed people by the Supreme Court.  Apple will have all of the same assurances to privacy, to protection from self incrimination, to a right to earn a living.  They have every right to do business as any American as an individual.  They have the resources and will win this battle.

Why is it so hard to take a position on personal privacy vs State security?  The State has laws and legal precedent allowing them to violate your personal privacy.  We have laws and legal precedent allowing us to refuse, assuming we have the financial resources to fight.  But encryption just sort of breaks everything.  Encryption means, even if the government gets their way, they might not be technically able to have their way.  You can’t hand them the keys to your data if you’re dead.  Encryption puts the government in a real pickle.

This will be the data privacy fight of the new millennium.  This will be good.

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