Last week, I criticized the confused rhetorical framework that the Feinstein-Burr encryption backdoor proposal tries to impose on the ongoing Crypto Wars 2.0 debate. In this post, I want to try to explain why technical experts have so overwhelmingly and vehemently condemned the substance of the proposal.
The first thing to note is how extraordinarily sweeping the bill is in scope. Its mandate applies to:
device manufacturers, software manufacturers, electronic communication services, remote communication services, providers of wire or electronic communication services, providers of remote communication services, or any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or to process or store data. [emphasis added]
Any of these “covered entities,” upon reciept of a court order, must be able to either provide the government with the unencrypted “plaintext” of any data encrypted by their product or service, or provide “technical assistance” sufficient to allow the government to retrieve that plaintext or otherwise accomplish the purpose of the court order. Penalties aren’t specified, leaving judges with the implicit discretion to slap non-compliant providers and developers with contempt of court. Moreover, “distributors of software licenses”—app stores and other software repositories—are obligated to ensure that all the software they host is capable of complying with such orders.
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