You are on the legal staff of SETEC, a non-profit advocacy group whose mission is to “keep the Internet open, free, and safe.” You have just learned about Senator Abbott’s proposal. You are flying to Washington for a meeting with the Senator’s staff tomorrow. Is the bill a good idea? Should you support it, oppose it, or push for modifications? What arguments will you make to the Senator’s staff, and how do you expect them to respond?”
I do not support Senator Abbott’s proposal and will be raising my concerns at my meeting with the Senator’s staff tomorrow in Washington. First, I do not support the proposition that the government will have access to everyone’ s secret keys and can decrypt communications. This opens the doors for abuse by those with the power to do so. Especially since only a court order will be required for law enforcement to gain access. The standard for a court order is usually less than the requirement for a warrant. This raises the question on whether the law would even be constitutional. The Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and seizure” and I think there could be an argument that obtaining a key to decrypt all communications just through a court order would be considered unreasonable. The standard for a warrant in the Fourth Amendment is probable cause. At the minimum for this law, that’s what the standard should be in order to decrypt the communications.
As the legal staff of SETEC, our mission is to “keep the internet open, free, and safe.” While the encryption requirement would help keep it safe, it would inhibit the ability to be open and free. All communications instead would have to go through the decryption process making it less efficient.
Leave a Reply