Our group decided to make a campaign video that informs the public about issues of encryption and security. The project can be found here. Please see my responses to the questions below.
- Is encryption a fundamental right? Should citizens of the US be allowed to have a technology that completely locks out the government?
I think that that this issue sits at the peak in between two very slippery slopes. On one side there is the fear that if the government has a backdoor to a device, it has a backdoor to everyones device. Then, there’s the idea that once the key exists, that it will get into the wrong hands and security as we know it will be gone. There is the other side too, where if we completely lock the government out, illegal activities could rise in the unsupervised and non-policeable domain. I would not want to have either of these scenarios happen. I think encryption is a right, because people should be able to protect their own data without the government watching; however, I think there has to be more restrictions for the platforms themselves to keep out illegal activity.
- How important of an issue is encryption to you? Does it affect who you support politically? financially? socially? Should it?
The issue of encryption is important to me, but I think it could definitely be a lot more important to me. I am not very literate when it comes to politics, but I think that if I learned more about the stances of different politicians on encryption it would make a difference to me. I also think it is important to consider when I think about what companies and resources I give my money to and who I decide to share my data with. I know that data is already being used as a “currency” but I think supporting companies with a strong encryption system and security is very beneficial. Overall, I can see how these topics are very important and I would like to put more time into understanding how I can better prioritize them.
- In the struggle between national security and personal privacy, who will win? Are you resigned to a particular future or will you fight for it?
I think that this question depends on the location of where it is being asked. In many countries around the world I definitely see that national security would overtake the need for personal privacy. I think it is difficult when it comes to the U.S. because the country clearly values national security a lot (with the whole largest military in the world thing) and also really values personal privacy. I really do think that national security will win, but then technology will continue to advance and we will continue to find ways to keep our information private. I do not think there is an ultimatum since I think the way we do things, technology we use, and the things we do will constantly change and evolve. I think that we should fight for what we want, but that we should know that this will be a constant battle.
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