{"id":885,"date":"2016-04-13T01:53:54","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T01:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/?p=885"},"modified":"2024-12-23T07:46:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T07:46:18","slug":"feinstein-encryption-bill-sets-off-alarm-bells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/feinstein-encryption-bill-sets-off-alarm-bells-885\/","title":{"rendered":"Feinstein encryption bill sets off alarm bells"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Feinstein<\/a><\/p>\n

A draft version of a long-awaited encryption bill from Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., was leaked online last week, and the technology industry is already calling foul.<\/p>\n

The bill requires any company that receives a court order for information or data to \u201cprovide such information or data to such government in an intelligible format\u201d or to \u201cprovide such technical assistance as is necessary to obtain such information or data in an intelligible format.\u201d It doesn\u2019t specify the terms under which a company would be forced to help, or what the parameters of \u201cintelligible\u201d are.<\/p>\n

The lack of these boundaries is one of the reasons why the backlash to the bill \u2014 which isn\u2019t even finished \u2014 has been so fast and overwhelming. Kevin Bankston, director of the Open Technology Institute, called it \u201ceasily the most ludicrous, dangerous, technically illiterate proposal I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s disheartening that the senators intend to continue pressing on with this bill, especially in light of the FBI\u2019s recent bullying of Apple. After the FBI bungled its handling of the San Bernardino shooter\u2019s phone, it tried and failed to force Apple into creating a new program that would let it hack into not just the shooter\u2019s phone but probably many other phones as well. When Apple resisted, the FBI mysteriously came up with a workaround. Small wonder other technology companies are reacting poorly to this Senate bill.<\/p>\n

Feinstein\u2019s staffers said that the issue is larger than one phone. That\u2019s true \u2014 and it\u2019s exactly why such a broad proposal should make everyone who uses a smartphone uneasy. Giving law enforcement such a broad mandate would inevitably lead to questionable decisions, and it would weaken Internet security for everyone.<\/p>\n

Feinstein\u2019s staff also said that the reason for the bill\u2019s vagueness is that the goal is simply to clarify law, not to set a strict method for companies or to tell the court what the penalties should be should companies choose not to follow orders. That sounds good in theory. In practice, Feinstein and Burr would be well-advised to go back to the table with technology interests \u2014 and really listen to their concerns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A draft version of a long-awaited encryption bill from Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., was leaked online last week, and the technology industry is already calling foul. The bill requires any company that receives a court order for information or data to \u201cprovide such information or data to such government in an … Continue reading Feinstein encryption bill sets off alarm bells<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[60,346,345],"class_list":["post-885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-apple","tag-bill","tag-feinstein"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dogoodsoft.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}