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A Backdoor to your nudity, privacy, and online protection

9 Oct , 2014  | by:

If you read anything about privacy, encryption, and how your life will unfold through these issues, read this post by Chris Coyne. He offers some cogent arguments about why backdoors to your privacy are a bad idea.  He starts by calling out the Washington Post’s Editorial Board for advocating a golden backdoor be built our digital lives. His title: The Horror of a Secure Golden Key.


One Response

  1. Anna Berlee says:

    Really interesting article!
    It very nicely enumerates the issues of backdoors. I do not entirely agree with the assumption of the author in the last paragraph of his first Consideration, where he states : “When Apple built iOS8, they took the stance that your data qualifies as personal space. Even if you host it in the cloud. For someone to break in, they have to come through you.” If I understand it correctly, and I might very well not, then he suggests that with Apple iOS8 Apple took a strong stance in terms of cloud data security. I would disagree with that.

    As I’ve mentioned earlier already (See here: https://theiii.org/index.php/291/apple-states-ios-8-update-keeps-your-data-private-except-icloud-data/) the idea that encryption on iOS8 might be solid and strong; however, whatever one puts in iCloud is not awarded similar protection. From the aforementioned link:

    “However, there is one big caveat, which the NYTimes noted. If you want matters to be private, then you should not use iCloud services, because:

    ‘[t]he new security in iOS 8 protects information stored on the device itself, but not data stored on Apple’s cloud service. So Apple will still be able to hand over some customer information stored on iCloud in response to government requests. ‘”

    But I agree with the assumption of the author that this data stored in a cloud should also qualify as personal space, without a backdoor.

    See also Bruce Sneier’s post on the matter, he mentions similar concerns (backdoors for good guys; used by bad guys, etc.) : https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/10/iphone_encrypti_1.html

    Reply

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