Radsoft
 About | Buy | News | Products | Rants | Search | Security
Home » News

Lex Orwell: Cryptology No Answer

Something else they're already outlawing.


Get It

Try It

STOCKHOLM (Radsoft) -- Swedish blogger Pawal criticises the Pirate Party for wasting time complaining when they should be adopting cryptology to protect themselves from Lex Orwell.

Rick Falkvinge claims Pawal's missed the point: it's not only the raw computing power of the Swedish FRA - it's also the fact governments are actually outlawing use of public encryption.

'When the powers that be have begun to see the possibility to eavesdrop as their right to eavesdrop the next step will be to make it a criminal act to even try to hide something', writes Falkvinge.

'France and the UK are already there.'

French Windows 95: No Cryptology

'In France it's a criminal act to use encryption - or at least was recently. I don't know how they've sorted out the use of secure sockets. But I do know they got a special version of Windows 95 with no encryption.'

'And in the UK you may still use cryptology - but they send you up the river for two years if you don't turn over your private key. Which really puts you in a bind if you should ever lose it.'

Make Them Understand

'Cryptology represents a spanner in the works - but only temporarily', says Falkvinge.

'The right of the individual to a private life must be established at a political level. Politicians need to be made to understand there's a difference between being able to eavesdrop and having the right to do it - and the right to a private life is necessary for the development of society.'

Another POV

Pirate Party vice chairman Christian Engström has the following to add.

'Cryptology is not a long term solution for securing democracy and the right to a private life. The FRA will still see who's contacting whom and be able to construct a complete sociogram of politically active individuals. As soon as they've identified the dissidents they can get their buddies with a click of the mouse. And it becomes much more difficult to conduct an open political discussion when everyone knows they can get into trouble by associating with politically radical individuals.'

'By a simple decision the government can get a list of everyone visiting 'unsuitable' websites. 'Unsuitable' means whatever the government want it to mean. That's hardly a good foundation for an open democratic society.'

'To undermine journalism's protection of sources it's really not necessary to have a copy of the leaked information - all you need to do is look in the traffic logs to see that so-and-so at the government office had frequent conversations with journalist so-and-so who later published the exposé. And at that point the government employee is toast - and it doesn't matter what pretty legislation's on the books to protect sources.'

'And what are we supposed to do when the government chooses to outlaw cryptology and anonymous Internet services? Already in the UK it's forbidden to use cryptology if you don't give the authorities a copy of your key. Refusing to do so can put you in gaol for up to two years.'

See Also
Radsoft Rants: Lex Blair
Radsoft News: To the Vote
Radsoft News: 'Ja' to Lex Orwell
Radsoft News: Orwellian Update I
Radsoft News: Lex Orwell & Intent
Radsoft News: Lex Orwell - No for Now
Radsoft News: Lex Orwell - How They Voted
Radsoft News: Sweden's First Banana Republic Party
Radsoft News: 'I Have To Be Able to Look Myself in the Eyes'
Radsoft News: Lex Orwell - Political Leader Threatens Resignation

About | Buy | News | Products | Rants | Search | Security
Copyright © Radsoft. All rights reserved.