<story><title>Open Letter from Governments to Facebook Is an All-Out Attack on Encryption</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/open-letter-governments-us-uk-and-australia-facebook-all-out-attack-encryption</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darawk</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting how governments come to feel entitled to forms of surveillance. For thousands of years financial transactions were completely illegible to government. They took place hand to hand, either in cash or barter. But now that transactions are digitized, it is actually illegal to conduct certain types of transactions anonymously (KYC&amp;#x2F;AML laws). This came about because governments got used to being able to peer into the financial lives of their citizens, and once they got used to it, they didn&amp;#x27;t like it when people circumvented that, so they made it a crime.&lt;p&gt;The same is true here of private messaging. Governments got used to being able to read our messages. They have come to rely on it. And so now they want to make it illegal for us to keep them out.&lt;p&gt;I guess what i&amp;#x27;m saying is: We ought to be extremely careful what we allow our governments to get used to doing. There is an argument to be made that the original sin here was allowing wiretaps &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;, even when the medium was un-encrypted.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Animats</author><text>Yes.&lt;p&gt;After WWII, the US imposed a constitution on Japan. Here&amp;#x27;s Article 21: &amp;quot;Freedom of assembly and association as well as speech, press and all other forms of expression are guaranteed.
No censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;All wiretapping was illegal in Japan until 1999.[1] Even today, it&amp;#x27;s very rare. 40 wiretaps in 2017.[2]&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.iol.co.za&amp;#x2F;mercury&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;japan-passes-controversial-wiretap-law-8417&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.iol.co.za&amp;#x2F;mercury&amp;#x2F;world&amp;#x2F;japan-passes-controversi...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20170217&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0na&amp;#x2F;013000c&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mainichi.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;20170217&amp;#x2F;p2a&amp;#x2F;00m&amp;#x2F;0na&amp;#x2F;01...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Open Letter from Governments to Facebook Is an All-Out Attack on Encryption</title><url>https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/open-letter-governments-us-uk-and-australia-facebook-all-out-attack-encryption</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>darawk</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting how governments come to feel entitled to forms of surveillance. For thousands of years financial transactions were completely illegible to government. They took place hand to hand, either in cash or barter. But now that transactions are digitized, it is actually illegal to conduct certain types of transactions anonymously (KYC&amp;#x2F;AML laws). This came about because governments got used to being able to peer into the financial lives of their citizens, and once they got used to it, they didn&amp;#x27;t like it when people circumvented that, so they made it a crime.&lt;p&gt;The same is true here of private messaging. Governments got used to being able to read our messages. They have come to rely on it. And so now they want to make it illegal for us to keep them out.&lt;p&gt;I guess what i&amp;#x27;m saying is: We ought to be extremely careful what we allow our governments to get used to doing. There is an argument to be made that the original sin here was allowing wiretaps &lt;i&gt;at all&lt;/i&gt;, even when the medium was un-encrypted.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway3392</author><text>AML laws are nuts. They operate on the presumption of guilt. That is, the burden of proof is on you to prove the money&amp;#x27;s provenance is not illegal. It&amp;#x27;s pretty scary. I have some BTC I mined back when they weren&amp;#x27;t worth much and those AML laws make me worried to cash out.</text></comment>