Encryption Is Not a Crime

Hi Everyone!

Today’s article is about a very important topic we should all care about:

The ongoing war against encryption.

This war has been going on for decades, but in today’s world, the quantity of data about us that needs to be protected with encryption makes it an even more critical issue that affects everyone.

While misguided or deceptive policymakers push to restrict the use of end-to-end encryption, we must push back relentlessly to protect it.

The future of data privacy might very well depend on the outcome of this war :locked_with_key: :raised_fist:

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It’s time to bring back the cipherpunks :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

Another great article!

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Excellent article again.

It’s high time we actively start discussing such topics more often and in different ways to change the narrative the other side wants you to believe incorrectly. And I think this is another write up that helps in that.

And the narrative against encryption always reads off and like an abuser trying to gaslight, manipulate, and scare you into believing what they do. It’s quasi cultist. Of course, folks with critical thinking skills are mostly the only ones who notice it.

Secular, science and facts based education is the key to most such issues. Thanks to PG/you for doing your part as we members here do ours.

And while this may be less prioritized of an issue as compared to the housing crisis and other more time sensitive issues - this is equally as important in other ways to maintain safety and rights of everyone. This is another thing people don’t talk about or miss the point of when evaluating the importance of any socio, political, civil liberties, or a tech issue.

Here’s an idea/suggestion:

All PG articles are well thought out. However tech, policy, laws, etc. do change and new info about the subject matter (of the article) is available. And so, it would be even better if there were anyone at PG keeping track of the same to see if anything can or should be added or amended to reflect said change or improvement. This will help keep all the articles up to date and accurate. I don’t know if PG already does this. Please consider ensuring of this too. Thanks!

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More ideas for stickers and merchandising..

Imagine a phase change phone case or something where encrypted data is shown at day and raw text at night, representing encryption. Or actually more viable option, a Phase change mug based on heat that does this.
Honestly, I would buy this. and I dont mind a slogna and a PG logo being slapped so.

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have to say great article as always
I’ll likely share it as I’ve actually been trying to talk to one of the people at my family benefiting of end to end encryption…

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we should do something

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the best we can do is calling local senators saying we dislike undermining encryption but yeah.

The problem is, breaking encryption doesn’t protect the children, it endangers them.

Exactly, another excellent article Em! :smiley: The section where you talked about what adding a backdoor for the “good guys” would actually look like was especially good, feels like politicians don’t really think about what it would look like in practice.

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Governments or companies bringing up the topic of children’s protection is simply to whitewash their attempts to strip down the privacy of regular folks and get more data out of them.

Good article, we have to speak out loud about such things.

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smh PG, always flip flopping on the issues! /s

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Encryption is not a crime, encryption is a shield.

Exactly! The arguments that you give are not just good for policymakers and other decision makers who stand against encryption, but they’re also our defense against regular people who may feel frustrated by our use of E2EE.

For e.g., some people may be annoyed that they need a password to read every email we send them because it’s E2EE. But that should make them pause and think about the issue more, IMO.

When I share information or any type of data via E2EE or any other privacy tool, with someone who does not use them, I want them to think about privacy.

Another way I thought about being subtly more aggressive is by deliberately creating ridiculous sounding aliases when a business ask for my email in person.

E.g.: fuzzy.toad123@passmail.net

If it makes them smile or chuckle, they will ask me why that’s my email, at which point I explain that the email I gave them is unique to them, and that I do that for privacy. In these kinds of in-person scenarios, I want to ignite curiosity.

I once had a receptionist at a doctor’s office laugh when I shared with her a funny passphrase to read the E2EE email I was about to send because they use GMail.

It was something like this:

elitist speaker bulldozes 350 venomous jukeboxes

Humor can disarm people and make them feel less frustrated for your constant use E2EE. It can also piss people off even more, but if I’m honest, I don’t care about that. I’m protecting my privacy.

Great job on another fantastic article! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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They use the same kind of deceptive argument trying to justify weakening the protections we have to supposedly catch “criminals” and “terrorists”.

Breaking encryption won’t even help catch the criminals that are actually going to hurt you.

See below, a rough “risk matrix” of various crimes, and the approximate likelihood of falling victim to each.

Key:
:speech_balloon: Usually coordinated over insecure, popular messages; susceptible to message interception as is

:locked_with_key: Popularly used to justify anti-encryption laws
:mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: Malicious actors typically bring phones, susceptible to phone geolocation records

Impact
Likelihood of Victimization Negligable Low Medium High Catastrophic (loss of life)
Certain (99%) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: :speech_balloon: Personal property theft (~99%)
Probable (51%+) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: :speech_balloon: Burglary (~72%)
Likely (25-50%+) :speech_balloon: :locked_with_key:Teen Sexting (~25%) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: Robbery (~30%) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: Robbery or Assault resulting in Injury (~40%)
Possible (10-24%+) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map: :speech_balloon:Vehicle theft (~19%)
Unlikely (1-9%) Rape (~8%, only women counted in study) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map: :speech_balloon:Drug overdose (~1.7%)
Rare (<1%) :mobile_phone_with_arrow: :world_map:: Murder (~0.7%), killed by drunk driver (0.3%)
Extremely Rare (<0.1%) :speech_balloon: :locked_with_key:Filmed and shared in child pornography by adult (~0.0017%) plane crash (~0.009%), killed by police officer (~0.0086%) :locked_with_key:terrorist attack (aprox. ~0.002%)
[1][2][3][6],

The government could exploit the absence of end-to-end encryption on social media platforms to target serious crimes that are both high-impact and high-likelihood. However, they choose not to; their rationale for extensive surveillance is often framed around preventing events that rarely affect the general population.

The arguments supporting anti-privacy legislation hinge on the fear of sensational crimes that dominate media coverage, creating an impression that terrorists and child pornographers are around every corner, plotting to pounce on their victims using unbreakable networks. Yet, a straightforward, objective evaluation reveals that these dangers either are 1) exceptionally rare or 2) rarely harm people.

Terrorist incidents are infrequent; unless one resides in a conflict zone like Syria, the likelihood from dying by choking on food, bicycle accident, or just walking around is over 10x greater than from a terrorist attack. Terrorists do use end-to-end encrypted products, but in absence of that they will utilize open-source client-side steganography, communicate on video games where talking about bombs is normal. They can and have developed and distributed their own messaging platforms. Or they can just find ways to get around blocks for these products; its not like terrorists are known for following the law.

The “Protect the Children” meme is just tiring. The likelihood of a child being filmed for CP by adults and actively shared are as uncommon as plane crashes, and when they do occur, they are rarely facilitated through E2E encrypted messengers. CP is typically shared through Tor or I2P sites, or even on the clearnet, by people who don’t actually do anything with kids in real life. For comparison, married police officers are statistically more likely to abuse children (10-40% depending on years of experience) than people arrested for looking at CP (1-2%)[4][5]. E2E encryption offers little advantage for CP users; their primary concern is anonymity rather than the confidentiality of their communications and content. To suggest that E2E encryption significantly impacts CP distribution reflects a misunderstanding (or deliberate misrepresentation) of how and why CP is filmed and shared. Backdooring messengers isn’t going to meaningfully reduce actual child abuse.

Most of what gets picked up as “CP” by mass surveillance tools are just teenagers doing what teenagers do, with other teens. Why do a bunch of grown government workers want to peek on teens’ intimate conversations and photos? How is this any different than a police officer peeking through a teenager’s bedroom window?

This is not to say violent terrorists and rapists shouldn’t be fought against - they are and should, the problem is that creating backdoors for E2E products is not an effective way of combating such threats.

Gang members and seasoned criminals typically lack technological expertise and do not utilize E2E encrypted messaging. Understandably, they’re not the brightest bunch. Car thieves often coordinate their activities on super insecure messaging platforms like Snapchat. The gang members who are likely violently assault you are like to boast about their actions on facebook messenger. The criminal who holds you at gunpoint probably has a phone that can be tracked. The drug dealer who introduces your child to fentanyl is likely to use unsecured SMS for coordination. Yet, does knowing their messages can be intercepted ever deter them?

Despite the fact that the most prevalent and dangerous criminals are generally not tech-savvy, law enforcement rarely employs their surveillance capabilities to address or prevent common violent crime. If you are violently attacked or robbed, police officers will likely search for camera footage, and will probably give up if they can’t find it (unless you’re rich and important enough). They might apprehend a suspect, but unless that individual is a political dissident, they are unlikely to use tools like Cellebrite to access the suspect’s phone or request messages from social media platforms. Companies like Google and Meta have the ability to monitor for drug dealers conspiring to commit violence on their platforms, yet they do not. Conversely, if a parent takes an inappropriate photo of their child, AI systems will detect it, leading to a police raid. Governments also seem adept at identifying individuals who support controversial political movements, yet they appear either incapable or unwilling to pursue the real threats - the uncivilized brutes that don’t use encryption in the first place.

The things that mass surveillance is supposedly made to prevent or justified with problems, that only effect a astronomically low percentage of the population. But mass surveillance itself effects us all. If the vast sums invested in mass surveillance were genuinely aimed at preventing crime and death, the results have been minimal. Perhaps these efforts are intended for something else?

Sources, Additoinal Reading

How likely are foreign terrorists to kill Americans? The odds may surprise you
[1]NCMEC - Production and Active Trading
Likelihood of being filmed in CP, calculated based on US youth (0-18) population as of 2023, and rates based on most recent statistics gathered (2011-2014) averaged out over 18 years.

[2] U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Lifetime Likelihood of Victimization
[3]NSC: Odds of Dying
[4] The consumption of Internet child pornography and violent and sex offending - PMC
[5] On the Front Lines: Police Stress and Family Well-Being.
[6] Impaired Driving Facts | Impaired Driving | CDC

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Very well put! And yes indeed, that is an excellent suggestion. Thank you :green_heart:

Thank you Jordan! :blush::green_heart:

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Thank your PurpleDime! And I love it! Fantastic ideas! It’s an excellent strategy to use humor to spark a conversation about privacy. We all need to do this more! :raised_fist::green_heart:

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Wow this was an excellent essay! Thank you so much for sharing this with us :green_heart:

Indeed, I agree with all you’ve written, and I especially like this point and questioning:

When we translate these actions into the real world, people tend to understand better how creepy mass surveillance truly is.

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Fun fact: it’s something I’ve meaningfully wanted to be done and have taken the matter into my own hands:

Feel free to take inspiration or share just try not to sabotage it I guess…

If I’m putting the shameless plug then, I’m soon to work on encryption article on a more meaningful level like showing a real world scenario thanks to Kryptey now that I remembered the android app and of course Gaming Privacy as a whole (which as fria said before, sucks, But I am and I guess anyone else could to what extent exactly…

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Another great Article!

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