#101 Go dark or go home - Unscrambling the encryption debate

** Content warning: This episode contains discussion of Child Sexual Abuse Material **

Australia's eSafety Commissioner is trying to force tech giants to scan cloud storage for illegal and harmful content. Apple says this could undermine security protections and facilitate mass surveillance.

 

This is just the latest skirmish in the crypto wars - a 50 year old policy debate about how to balance strong encryption (which is essential to privacy and security online) with law enforcement access to crucial data.

 

This week we explore some of the policy and rhetorical challenges that arise when trying to debate these competing objectives.

 

Links:

Article on Apple's criticism of eSafety's proposed standards (InnovationAus) https://www.innovationaus.com/apple-warns-against-mass-file-scanning-proposal/

 

An old but good breakdown of some common crypto wars rhetoric (The Verge) https://www.theverge.com/2016/1/12/10749806/encryption-debate-fbi-terrorism-going-dark

 

Criticism of Malcolm Turnbull's laws of mathematics gaffe (Electronic Frontier Foundation) https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/07/australian-pm-calls-end-end-encryption-ban-says-laws-mathematics-dont-apply-down

 

Credits: Editing and post-production by Martin Franklin (East Coast Studio) eastcoaststudio.com.au
Music by Bensound.com