french parliament French Parliament Votes For Law That Would Put Tech Execs In Jail If They Don't Decrypt Data

[Reefa]

Okay, this is just getting silly now. A bunch of reactionary French politicians have voted to put tech execs in jail if they refuse to decrypt data for criminal investigations:

 

Quote

The controversial amendment, drafted by the rightwing opposition, stipulates that a private company which refuses to hand over encrypted data to an investigating authority would face up to five years in jail and a €350,000 (£270,000) fine.

Telecoms operating companies would be liable to lesser penalties but would still face up to two years in jail.

 

Of course, this comes at the same time that basically the entire tech industry is rallying in support of Apple's stance of refusing to hack into its own systems to remove security features and make it easier to decrypt data. And it's coming right as the world was ridiculing Brazil for arresting (and then releasing) a Facebook exec for refusing to hand over data from subsidiary Whatsapp.

This kind of move is so stupid on so many levels that it defies any kind of logic. It's bad for security, because weak encryption puts us all at much greater risk than the threat of terrorists or criminals using encryption (in part, because this kind of thing won't stop them from using secure encryption, and in part because those threats are very low probability risks). It's also bad for the economy, because you've just given a ton of important tech companies every reason in the world to no longer operate in France due to such a ridiculous law that may put execs in jail. It's bad for the public in that it will mean less secure services and devices that put them at risk, while also potentially cutting off more innovative and useful products and services.

This is the kind of kneejerk reaction from people who are too ignorant and too scared to understand the actual technology and the actual issues at stake. Why do citizens in these countries continue to allow ignorant scared people to make such blatantly bad rules?

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160304/23422933811/french-parliament-votes-law-that-would-put-tech-execs-jail-if-they-dont-decrypt-data.shtml

 

[jamesDDI]

getting worse 

[steven36]

Brazil  already did put someone in jail for this the vice president of facebook to be exact. 

[pc71520]

When Crime & Terror become the excuse for Privacy violation...

[straycat19]

I don't have a problem with this.  As far as I am concerned anyone who refuses to decrypt a device in a terrorist or criminal investigation is providing support to them and as such are violating the law and should be prosecuted as an accessory after the fact.  Additional charges could be brought for disobeying a court order also.  I don't encrypt anything, I have no personal or classified information stored on any of my devices/systems and therefore have nothing to hide.

[CODYQX4]

4 hours ago, straycat19 said:

I don't have a problem with this.  As far as I am concerned anyone who refuses to decrypt a device in a terrorist or criminal investigation is providing support to them and as such are violating the law and should be prosecuted as an accessory after the fact.  Additional charges could be brought for disobeying a court order also.  I don't encrypt anything, I have no personal or classified information stored on any of my devices/systems and therefore have nothing to hide.

You have nothing to hide until something you do becomes illegal overnight, or is stretched or evidence planted. Piss off the wrong person and they'll invent something to hide for you.

 

If you have nothing to hide post your SSN and Bank Account all over Facebook and YouTube.