Encryption Is Not a Crime
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/04/11/encryption-is-not-a-crime/
Comments
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
anonApril2025@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
Too bad the paper proclamation that is the constitution means nothing today
primemagnus@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Encryption is only a crime if done by a poor or not the government. So long as it’s got the rich people backing it, it’s not even in the same league.
When will you people see that this world doesn’t have universal rules. It has rules for the poor. And those for the rich.
altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
There’s a mass without roofs, a prison to fill
A country soul that reads post not bills
A strike, and a line of cops outside of the mill.
There is a right to obey, and the right to kill.
© Rage against the Machine
BigBenis@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Encryption should be no more a crime than locking your house or storing your valuables in a safe.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Encryption is not just not a crime, it’s a republican virtue, those arguments usually used about guns, they are even better applicable to encryption. Encryption is actually a civil duty, because of herd immunity being damaged by people not using encryption. That public institutes’ erosion we are seeing in the last decades - it’s because the technological progress made the need for encryption to blow up, not accompanied with sufficient public perception. That erosion is a result of bad people having gotten orders of magnitude more information about everyone to plan their actions.
adespoton@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Yet.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
They’ll send you to the Gulag here even if you didn’t commit a crime.
Opisek@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s the Cypherpunk’s Manifesto all over again.
Greg@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Encryption is not a crime *unless you’re doing it to someone else’s data to extort them for bitcoins
FriendBesto@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
Who is the removed who would that encryption is a crime?
Sturgist@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
A fairly large portion of governments globally
Pirata@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
They’ll just make it a crime and pretend you were wrong all along. We’re not playing by moral rules anymore.
annette_runner@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think it’s contextual. It is definitely relevant to bring into a criminal case that criminals made attempts to obstruct gathering of evidence in commission of the crime. It’s no different than shredding or burning paper files. Evidence of criminals taking steps to hide the criminal activity is how you prove that a transgression is willful rather than negligent. That matters in cases like murder.
Encryption is also criminal in some contexts, like encrypted radio broadcasts on frequencies for public use.
It definitely belongs as a talking point in a courtroom, imo.
revv@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
With respect, this is a short-sighted take. There’s literally no legitimate crime that is made worse because a person tried to avoid it being detected. Plot a murder over tor? Not a good look. But in what universe is someone less morally culpable because they just posted on craigslist?
On the other hand, allowing the use of encryption or other privacy methods to affect the criminality or punishment assigned to an action just creates a backdoor to criminalizing privacy itself. Allowing that serves no real purpose in deterring folks from hurting others, but it sure does further the interests of an oppressive or authoritarian regime.
annette_runner@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
How does covering up a crime not make it worse when it allows you to get away and commit more crime?
rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s no different than shredding or burning paper files.
Both are normal if you work with information you wouldn’t like to leak. Or something very personal.
They are that thing you said only if they are unusual for the circumstance. When that gives information that a person did something not normal.
Because that’s a sign of something, kinda similar to shaking hands and missing shovel and sudden lack of time for guests.
Encrypting everything on Internet-connected machines is not unusual. It’s perfectly normal. It’s f* obligatory.
Encryption is also criminal in some contexts, like encrypted radio broadcasts on frequencies for public use.
Because that’s almost jamming, if everyone could broadcast all they can, nobody could use those frequencies. And since you have to make space there, private transmissions probably belong somewhere else. Doesn’t matter when using wire. This is irrelevant to encryption.
It definitely belongs as a talking point in a courtroom, imo.
No it doesn’t. Even if someone suddenly started encrypting everything, no. Maybe they learned how the world works and decided to learn to do it just in case.
kandoh@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
Legalize it
cy_narrator@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Encryption is like a lock, it has keys. Its like saying “All of you should provide a print of all your keys used in your home to the police, else how would we know you are not hiding a body in there?”
jsomae@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I believe in some jurisdictions it is in some circumstances a crime, yes.
adrian@50501.chat 3 weeks ago
And backdoored encryption is just as bad as unencrypted, maybe worse, since it lulls you into a false sense of security.
turmacar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Mathematically worse.
CalipherJones@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I heard the Salt Typhoon attack was only able to happen because of backdoors in encryption.
wired.com/…/chinas-salt-typhoon-spies-are-still-h…