Obama: Privacy for Me But Not for Thee

“I’m listening.”

I don’t recall hearing anything about this in the State of the Union:

Not long after British Prime Minister David Cameron did the same, President Obama said Friday that he opposes encryption methods that are inaccessible to law enforcement. Rather naively, he advocated that the technology should still exist, but with methods of access for approved entities like police and preferred spy agencies. This is his first clear issue stance on the matter, though it is not necessarily out of step with his previous actions and statements.

Of course, cybersecurity experts collectively groaned at the President’s suggestion of strong encryption that is only accessible to authorities. Taking for granted that law enforcement can be trusted – and, of course, Edward Snowden and countless others have shown us it cannot – there are a host of problems. The basic one is this: if someone other than the person doing the encryption can decrypt the information, then lots of people can do it too.

I question the author’s use of the word “naively.” Obama knows exactly what he’s doing.