Bloomberg reports, “‘There has got to be some way to protect the privacy of data information,’ Hillary Clinton says in Grand Rapids, Mich. ‘There has got to be some way to avoid breaking data encryption and opening the door to a lot of bad actors. But there has to be some way to follow up on criminal activity and prevent crimes and terrorism.’ ‘I am someone who is just feeling like I am in the middle of the worst dilemma ever.'”
• Says there is “real mistrust” between technology companies and government now that is a “serious problem that has to be somehow worked through.”
• “It’s a problem we’ve got to come up with some way to solve. And I am not expert in any way to tell you how to do it.”
Bloomberg Politics is here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, encryption is either on or off. This is a binary issue. There is no in-between. You either have encryption or you do not.
There have been people that suggest that we should have a back door. But the reality is if you put a back door in, that back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, December 2015
This is not about this phone. This is about the future. And so I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or in any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people’s abilities to protect themselves. If we take encryption away… the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people. Apple doesn’t own encryption. Encryption is readily available in every country in the world, as a matter of fact, the U.S. government sponsors and funs encryption in many cases. And so, if we limit it in some way, the people that we’ll hurt are the good people, not the bad people; they will find it anyway. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 2016
Oppose government overreach.
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Albert P.” for the heads up.]
What about Clinton vs FBI?
Since when is she concerned about justice?
No dilemma about Hillary’s illegal use of an insecure home server, though.
I was and still is totally outside of the laws for insiders in WDC to do what Hillary did.
Of course, we also know that Bush’s 2 secretaries of state, Powell and Rice, also used private email servers.
This whole email dust up is a contrived Republican con job…brought to you by the party that knows flim flam dishonesty better than anyone. And it didn’t just start with Trump.
Remember all of the phony garbage lobbed at Bill Clinton when he was President? About how he murdered Vince Foster, etc…and see the garbage thrown at President Obama…how he’s a secret Muslim, not an American citizen, etc. This is the same type of garbage by the party of con artists.
It is NOT binary. The only question needing an answer is which data can be left unencrypted.
That sounds reasonable until you realize that the security agencies want access to everything. There’ll be no encrypted this but not that allowed. MDN is right. This is binary.
At least she’s not treating the issue like it’s easy using it to score points off Apple like that ass trump is.
She’s one of the few smart enough to understand it’s a complex conundrum, but she also takes pains to say that she’s not an expert on encryption – how could she be if she assumes “wiping an email server clean” is done with a wash rag or something. /s
Me-thinks she is too smart for her own good. No wonder the staff member that set up her server was granted immunity from prosecution to give the inside scoop.
Ironic that she thinks the FBI vs Apple is “the worst dilemma ever”.
Yes. Nuance. It is a word that most politicians pretend to not know the meaning of.
Think of the children.
There has simply got to be… some. way.
Exactly. Think of the children who will be spied upon in their own bedrooms if Hillary has her insidious way.
Clinton doesn’t know or care about what happens in anyone’s bedroom, including Bill’s. That’s more than can be said for some candidates.
But more to the point, why is MDN cheering the scummy actors who are paying nothing but lip service to the issue of privacy? Google already spies on everyone, they obviously will do anything to continue to take user data with impunity. It’s just icing on the cake for Google not to have to show it to anyone else, with a warrant or otherwise.
What’s worse, Cook allows Google Search to be installed on iPhones by default. The irony in Cook’s position is not lost on some of us.
Thanks to crap security built into thousands of IoT (Internet of Things) devices, it is possible to SPY on children in their beds right NOW, if you know how to look for unprotected devices on the net.
If IoT devices had decent end-to-end encryption and further security protection from camera to the intended user, the children would BENEFIT.
I agree completely with Apple’s position on this question, but the problem isn’t as straightforward as some might argue
The problem with the MDN take is that the Fourth Amendment is itself a compromise between privacy and law enforcement. The Founders did not see that as a binary issue. We got along pretty well for 200 years with unreasonable searches outlawed and reasonable searches legal, when vetted by a neutral magistrate who issued a warrant upon a showing of probable cause. The difficulty now is twofold: (1) certain government officials have carried out unreasonable searches with impunity and (2) reasonable searches of a properly encrypted device have become impossible, no matter how lawful the warrant.
That is, in fact, one of the “worst dilemmas ever.” Because encryption is either on or off, societies are being forced to choose between privacy and public safety in ways that the Founders could never have anticipated. Given that choice, I would choose liberty over security, but I would not pretend (as many privacy advocates do) that empowering criminals is a good thing. It may be less bad than the alternatives, but it is really hard on the innocent victims of crime who can get neither justice nor protection when criminals can operate without any fear that a lawful, reasonable search might take them off the street.
I see what you’re saying, but let’s not pretend that the phone is the only evidence that could possibly exist.
In other words, it will make law enforcement’s job a bit harder. But, that’s what Constitutional rights always do. Law enforcement’s job would be much easier if no one had any rights. Then again, at that point, you’d probably be wishing they could NOT do their “job.”
Her detractors might say she’s non-commital or on the fence, but that’s 100x better than the asshats like the frontrunners for the GOP who say in no uncertain terms that Apple is wrong and should surrender to the FBI’s demands.
No, she’s simply too chicken-shit scared to take a position.
How come the feds never went after RIM and the BlackBerry which were supposed to be ultra-secure smartphones? POTUS still uses a BlackBerry due to its high security rating.
Why are they suddenly busting Apple’s chops? Did the BlackBerry have some sort of a special backdoor that the feds were able to exploit so they never needed to threaten RIM? Again, Apple is such an easy mark, so why not go after it. Of all the smartphone company manufacturers on the planet, they just had to go after Apple because Apple is such a pushover of a company.
I would really have loved to see how Steve Jobs would have responded to this harassment of his company. In expletives, I suppose? Maybe they wouldn’t have messed with Steve Jobs, but Tim Cook is probably seen as a marshmallow to them. I’m guessing he’s seen as a marshmallow to a lot of people and that’s why Apple is completely disrespected.
The Hacking Team, out of Italy, already sells the tools to crack a Blackberry. They’ve had them available for years. The Hacking Team state they have tools to break into every mobile device EXCEPT the unJailbroken Apple iPhone 5S and later with post iOS 8.
I trust Sanders on this issue more than any other candidate.
Bernie is the only one not tied to big money and status quo corruption. I trust Bernie for some sanity and honesty on the issues—he really is fighting for the people. Go Bernie—go, go!
Too bad he wants to flush Wall Street and all your investments down the toilet. After Bernie finnishes gutting the economy the voters won’t be able to afford gas to mow their lawns. Folks will need to get their fiber from grass clippings, so they better start sharpen those shears. Clip, clip. “Honey, are we having grass stew again?” “No, Jim Bob. I found one of them green crickets today. It’s grass and crickets; graaaass and crickets.” Thanks Bernie.
Right, because the gamblers in high frequency trading and all kinds of other fraudulent schemes are what make our investments work. Have you been paying attention since 2007? The folks Sanders criticizes are the ones who made the economy go “down the toilet.”
Sanders believes in capitalism (to the disappointment of many actual leftists), but thinks that a progressive tax system should provide services that benefit the public (infrastructure, healthy workers, educated populace, etc.). Imagine that! Healthy, educated workers for those businesses that make the economy work. What an idea.
Hillary’s gotta have it both ways stance sounds like hubby Bill’s “I smoked but didn’t inhale.” Both crap.
i noticed she used the verb ‘is’. did we ever get clarification on the meaning?
Read into Bills statement a little bit harder. “Depends on what the definition of IS, IS.”
Extra comma or space? You decide.
Delightfully Clintonesque!
Is it really so hard to understand if you read even just a few of what the TECH EXPERTS are saying? Is this just the-HILL-ARY politics-as-usual appealing to both sides of the issue thinking only about getting the maximum votes with every word? The-DONALD or the-HILL-ARY. Holy f—, what a choice! That’s one almighty mother f—of a dilemma!
The Bill of Rights permits reasonable searches of your papers. It also protects against self-incrimination and compulsory speech. In 1789, information (such as the location of a black powder cache) was kept either in your head, or written down. If the authorities nabbed you, with a warrant they could read your note and recover the contraband. But if you had eaten the note first, they could not compel you reveal its contents.
So is the iPhone like your papers, which can be seized, or your mind, which can’t?
It should be noted that the republican candidates endorse torture so that they can “seize” your mind with coerced confession.
As batshit crazy as hillary sounds, she comes down on the right side of Bill of Rights issues, with the possible exception of the 2nd Amendment. That’s where Bernie has the edge — as a libertarian leaning candidate on social issues, he’s more in line with mainstream America on all Bill of Rights issues, including the 2nd.
Thoughts…
Is torture legal for US citizens? No, because such coercion contravenes the Bill of Rights. Was it legal for Gitmo detainees? Perhaps, because the Geneva Conventions don’t apply to nonsignatory nonstate combatants.
Congress has no balls. They ratified the Patriot Act in a flush of emotion, later renewed it. Did they ever realise that granting extraordinary powers to the Executive Branch would come back to bite them in the ass? Damn few asked if a national thirst for revenge trumped the Constitution.
Probably not, because most of them have Idiot Vote Calculators in their pockets. These things are passed around at caucuses and orientation sessions right along with the usual mimeographed lists of talking points, which our fine legislators duly enter into their Rolodexes and Day-Timers, and consult right before each vote to make sure their donors are properly served.
The only problem is that with alt-candidates like Trump or Sanders, these prescriptive aids don’t work so well any more. The old analytics are failing the powerful men behind the scenes who once had their hands firmly on the tiller of social policy and regulation. They aren’t the sort to panick, however; they’ll find a replacement for the long-standing puppet show. Can’t wait to see what it is.
Just makes me shake my head.
The quote: “There has got to be some way to protect the privacy of data information,”
There is, it’s called encryption, been used for a long time, now available to the masses.
“There has got to be some way to avoid breaking data encryption and opening the door to a lot of bad actors. But there has to be some way to follow up on criminal activity and prevent crimes and terrorism.”
There is, it’s called evidence and today there is tons of it, footprints, fingerprints, close circuit cameras, DNA testing, voice facial recognition, infrared, sonar, radar, hair samples, dirty samples, the plethora of techniques to detect and determine evidence is the best it’s ever been. Now there is one thing made non-searchable and the whiners are coming out.
“I am someone who is just feeling like I am in the middle of the worst dilemma ever” That’s Hillarious, WHHHHHHAAAAAA let’s me call you an ambulance to treat your poor worse dilemma ever.
The CHOICE to encrypt is the right of every US citizen and it is going to stay that way, whether law enforcement or government agencies like it or not. Encryption is here to stay and it will remain no matter what is the outcome of this fight over citizen privacy. That’s the fact.
Meanwhile, lots of hand-wringing, hyper-emotional appeals, ‘think of the children’ and ‘if you have nothing to hide…’ rubbish will probably offend our eyes and ears for years to come, changing nothing. Encryption is here to stay.
Friday, March 11 is Apple’s day in court.
Dystopia looms. As usual.
If necessary we can lose the damned iPhone, and instead record our thoughts, plans, and hopes in a paper diary secured with a dear little locket.
I’d suppose the men in black would look rather silly breaking into my apartment with a warrant to confiscate pink Hello Kitty paraphernalia, but they’d be gruff and do it anyway.
They would look foolish in the extreme demanding that I decrypt the diary’s contents. “I can’t do it, and no one else can, either,” I’d assert from my cement holding cell. “It’s a copy of the Voynich Manuscript.”
Overreaching, they would confound their perfidy and imbecility by obtaining a court order demanding myself to decrypt the message.
Anxious for my life and freedom in a world gone mad, I’d submit to the coercion and supply my jailers with a translation. It would be the full text of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” in French, Turkish, and Navaho.
At that they would get blood in their eye, but I’d live another day by offering to schedule lectures for their field agents on linguistic etymologies. I’d have attained the equivalent of hacker nirvana, getting a lot of very smart people to glaze over as I lectured them about the differences between metaphor, metafive, and metasex.
Send me an invitation!
Blunder Bandaid: Tuesday, March 22 is Apple’s day, week, month in court. (Not the 11th).
Hillary is a NeoCon War Hawk.
She also has more serious issues, like getting her sizable ass kicked in Michigan last night where polls showed her 10-15 points ahead as recently as the weekend. She has recently been seen talking about what color drapes she wants in the Oval Office…
She has yet to get a clean victory out of the Old Confederacy where the November General will go Republican. Iowa and Massachusetts were essentially ties.
As to the FBI, there is no dilemma. They need to do their job and stay out of politics. This whole thing was an effort to exploit the fears of low information citizens to trade their privacy to the ever expanding police/surveillance state.
I bet Hillary wished her emails were located on an iPhone 6 now 😉