How Will Social Media Suffer From Cameron's Planned Ban On Encryption
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What we’ll be looking at today is the effect the Party’s
leadership will have on-you guessed it! - Social media. The most prominent policy
change to affect social media seems to be David Cameron’s proposed abolishment
of data encryption, a change that, if implemented, could skew the way we
communicate online forever…or at least the next five years.
So, we should start by addressing exactly which social media
appliances will be affected by the ban on encryption; Apple and Google’s mobile
operating systems both automatically encrypt their data, as do the messaging
Apps WhatsApp and Snapchat. But it doesn’t end there.
Encryption underpins all secure services online, including
internet banking, bill payment- even cash points use it. It seems the
government are quite out of touch with role encryption play in our everyday
lives; to weaken a system so constantly under threat would be terribly foolish.
As an alternative to a complete ban, Cameron has suggested
that services that encrypt their data offer a back door for the government to
peep through when absolutely necessary; “in extremis”. But as we know hackers
are already ahead of the game, so how long does Cameron think it’ll take for
them to sniff out whatever entrance they use to snoop on our data? Banks have
already been subject to the craft of online robbers, only becoming secure in
the wake of the of the Crypto wars, which saw a shift from having to justify
the use of encryption, to having to justify not using encryption. This shift is
most evident in the case of establishments, such as hospitals, that contain
high volumes of intimate public data.
The argument settles at a paradox, or an Orwellian
confliction of interests. This comes from two incompatible truths we all hold
dear to our hearts, these being:
1.Terrorists should not be allowed to secretly
plot merciless attacks on civilians and/or the destruction of western society.
2. Civilians have the right to privately
communicate, be it in the pub, through the post, online or on the telephone.
To really get to the bottom of this problem, we first need
to deconstruct the principles to discover precisely what they entail.
The second is much easier to dissect; of course in a
democratic society we should have the right to communicate away from the
intrusive concept of government eavesdropping. This idea should certainly
include letters and phones; but does it extended to the internet? With the
internet taking control of so many aspects of modern day life, to take control
of it, is to take some form of control over people. Is online privacy a right that we need? Could
it be agreed that our use of the internet is a privilege? And therefore, not
free from interference? I’m not even
close to being sure.
David Cameron’s pursuit to ban encryption travels through
foggy terrain. It is hard to gain any insight from Houses of Commons where the
assembly behaves like a bunch of poorly behaved, sugar crazed school children;
every time the issue is addressed publicly it’s hard to gain much info through Cameron’s
rambling mantra of “in extremis” this “in extremis” that.
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It is no secret that terrorism is a massive concern now, as
it always has been, but in principle the emergence of online terrorist activity
should have no bearing on our right to privacy; People get stabbed, yet we
still sell knives; people smoke and drink themselves to death, yet we still
sell booze and cigarettes. Although from time to time we suffer the negative
consequences of freedom, it is this same freedom that sparks everything
brilliant in our society.
As explained by Phil Zimmermann, the government already has immeasurable
access to 99% of our day to day information, they know when we come and go,
when and where, and so to sacrifice the liberty of our citizens for that last
1% seems too high a price to pay.
Leo Donnelly
Ever wondered what would happen if you gave a half-crazed, semi-concussed, unstoppable maverick a platform to write about social media? Follow him @LeoAtSMF
Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.
Ever wondered what would happen if you gave a half-crazed, semi-concussed, unstoppable maverick a platform to write about social media? Follow him @LeoAtSMF
Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info http://socialmediacambridge.co.uk/.
How Will Social Media Suffer From Cameron's Planned Ban On Encryption
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, May 25, 2015
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Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, May 25, 2015
Rating:
Unknown
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