Comment on Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row
smeg@feddit.uk 2 weeks agoCan’t law enforcement already read those messages by getting a warrant to seize the suspect’s phone and attempting to break into it? Why do they suddenly need to preemptively break into everyone’s phone?
SleafordMod@feddit.uk 1 week ago
I guess I think of it like bugging a phone. The technology for bugging phones has been around for a long time, but that doesn’t mean the authorities are bugging everybody’s phones all the time. Even if they can theoretically listen to everyone’s conversations, that doesn’t mean they are always listening. There would be too many conversations to listen to.
smeg@feddit.uk 1 week ago
Bugging a phone involves applying the bug to one phone, right? Backdooring encryption is bugging everyone’s phone in advance and then hoping that the bug only ever gets used lawfully.
Also as computing power increases then it becomes more plausible to actually process all of everyone’s messages. Maybe they start by automatically flagging certain words, then if you’re detected using them you’re automatically flagged and a warrant issued to read everything you’ve ever said.
SleafordMod@feddit.uk 1 week ago
Maybe I should read more about encryption. I was thinking maybe a company like Apple could just keep the encryption keys stored somewhere. So if needed they could decrypt particular messages. There could be big punishments, prison time, for anybody within Apple who decrypts messages without a court warrant.
smeg@feddit.uk 1 week ago
You can probably get a better explanation by reading up on encryption, but I think most security people would say that encrypted communications where you don’t hold the keys may as well not be encrypted at all. You still have to trust that someone doesn’t (accidentally or deliberately) access your data, leak your keys, or otherwise break the process that keeps everything safe.