Privacy is a human right in Europe. I don't think it's a pipe dream to give encryption some good PR, especially when it powers the internet, keeps your payments safe, protects you from bad guys, etc.
Pushing hard on the concept that Encryption == Privacy is very important. We should not call intentionally-backdoored crypto "Encryption", but something obviously bad such as "Open-Door Fake Encryption", or whatever actually speaks to people.
Make sure the terrorists can't find and research targets.
Make sure child molesters can't get at your kids.
Make sure bank robbers can't get at banks.
Make sure organized crime can't spy on the police and thwart police actions. Etc etc.
Don't assume that "we" are happy about that. You might be; others are not.
Unbreakable encryption should be available to everyone, and straightforward for everyone to use, and used by default rather than only for "sensitive" information. Unbreakable encryption should be so widely used that the thought never even occurs to anyone to associate it with wrongdoing. Communication using unbreakable encryption should simply be "communication".
I don't want to suggest everyone is happy with the status quo, but it's at least not one of the top items on everyone's agenda for change.
> Unbreakable encryption should be available to everyone, and straightforward for everyone to use, and used by default rather than only for "sensitive" information. Unbreakable encryption should be so widely used that the thought never even occurs to anyone to associate it with wrongdoing. Communication using unbreakable encryption should simply be "communication".
I agree with you - but I also doubt it will happen. Not because of some government conspiracy but because I don't for a second believe that people would choose "government can't tap a criminal's phone call or text messages even with a court order" as an acceptable drawback for the benefit "my own conversations are always secure". I really don't. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though. So I simply don't think there is any democratic pressure for it.
We need to very clearly and universally make the message clear: there's unbreakable encryption, and there's broken encryption, nothing in between. Anything that purports to be in between is either broken or soon will be.
If anyone calls me on a regular phone call, I'm always aware of this.. It's that nasty feeling of being spied on that's really the main reason I hate this so much. The government shouldn't have any reason to spy on me but spying on everyone is simply becoming the norm because they can.
"A policeman's job is only easy in a police state." — https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Touch_of_Evil
> as a genuinely terrifying prospect in plenty of TV shows.
Probably for a reason:
This is a genuine question because it's a counterintuitive notion to me since I find the lack of E2E encryption scary.
It's obviously even more scary (an existential threat) to authorities that are used to be able to do mass surveillance of messages in transit (Such as the NSA).
knives are scary