Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/17/why-ag-barrs-use-of-pensacol.html
FBI needs to be able to hack into your iphone, Trump’s sham AG William Barr says
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Everything Barr does is suspicious.
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When security is a crime, only criminals will be secure.
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Suspicious, or just stupid?
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Barr’s vision of an authoritarian Xtianist nation-state can’t come to fruition if the President’s secret police have to deal with strong crypto.
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Well, the gov actually DOES need to get into our phones to protect us from terrorists. The question is how to ensure they always get a court order to do so.
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[Citation Needed]
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“our?” You sure about that? I am doubtful.
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Let’s just be really, really honest for a moment.
They want backdoors into encryption, because if these crypto-fascists are successful in establishing a fascist, white power, “Christian” nation – AS IS THEIR PLAN – they know there will be a rebellion against it, and the public not having access to viable encryption will make it much easier for them to put down said rebellion.
'Nuff said.
You beat me to it!
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yes.
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How does this work, exactly?
The fourth amendment is supposed to protect us, but as Snowden and others have demonstrated, this is easily abused because “something something terrorism”.
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Here’s me waiting for a reply of the questions asked above.
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I call complete bullshit on that.
They don’t NEED it. They just WANT it. They want it for lots of things, and none of them are good.
Reading your phone or other computing device is NOT like searching a home on a warrant. It’s more like searching your mind. In fact, it is even worse. Your phone knows more about you than you do. It’s more precise and never forgets.
Sure, you could potentially stop lots of terrorism, and crime in general (as well as any meaningful dissent) if you’d only allow armed agents to search everybody’s homes and workplaces every night, but only a psychotic fascist would want that. It turns out that would be less invasive than mass data collection as well!
Encrypt everything! Never use bio-metrics, and always refuse to give up your passwords. Law enforcement, border agents can lie, but they can not (in the U.S). compel you to give up a password, but they can compell a fingerprint or other bio-metric authentication.
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Comey from the Obama administration tried it. Barr repeating the exact words and using the same rationale.
I’d like to know where the impetus for this is coming from, since it’s spans the aisles so nicely. It feels Deep State-ish.
This is the kind of shit that makes people say both (major) parties are the same.
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Man, how did they stop terrorists before there were cell phones?
If all it takes is a court order to get into your phone, it’s not actually secure enough to do the things that people use if for on a day-to-day basis.
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I don’t think any deep state conspiracy is required.
Both parties actually suck when it comes to anything relating to digital privacy. Look at Biden’s recent statement about gutting section 230. Comey and Barr have pushed for weakening encryption and I expect whoever comes next to do the same. Law enforcement wants to catch more “bad guys”. It is the public’s duty to push back when catching more bad guys comes at too great a cost (see my post above on physical searches).
- “bad guys” is defined as whatever the current administration wants it to mean
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When it comes to murderous wars of aggression and the authoritarian surveillance state, they are.
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And , just like last time, a number of companies have already said they can hack the phone, for a price.
Anytime someone from the security apparat or the secret police says something, the default assumption should be that it’s a lie, and the relevant questions to ask are ones about why they are telling that lie.
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So when will the government ban flammable paper, as the destruction of terrorists’ notes to one another hinders law enforcement’s efforts to find them and thwart their plans?
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The real irony about this demand by dTrump and his cronies that Apple give them access to the two iPhones in this shooting is that both phones, (a 5S and a 6, IIRC), are already very easily broken into, the FBI certainly have the means, because they’re old phones running a comparatively simple OS, by the standards of iOS13.
This just looks like political posturing by the administration designed to continue to portray Apple as the bad guys preventing the ‘good guys’ from beating terrorists, to appeal to the lowest denominator fan base on the campaign trail.
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