

Should the Government Be Allowed to Read Your E-Mails? - edw519
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=11825039

======
david_shaw
The short answer is no--not without a warrant.

In my opinion, the argument here is very similar to the NSA unwarranted
wiretap scandal. Law enforcement and intelligence services should be able to
listen in on calls deemed suspicious for reasons of national security-- _if_
they have a warrant. Overarching listening networks such as ECHELON seem
unethical to me, but good luck telling that to the NSA.

The issue in question, however, is more along the lines of whether the
government should be able to circumvent user encryption. Can the NSA throw
your encrypted document in their massive server farm and crack it in a few
days? Probably. Is there anything we can do to stop that? Not really, other
than huge keys and secure algorithms.

What the government wants, however, is similar to what RIM provided Saudi
Arabia (and what the USA wanted with its key escrow service years ago): a
backdoor into an encryption scheme, or a copy of private keys.

Both from a computer security perspective and an interpreted Constitutional
right to privacy, the government should need a warrant to get encrypted data.
Just like they'd need a warrant to get your paper diary that you keep next to
your laptop, they should (and currently do) require one to read your e-mail.
And that's the way it should stay.

------
petrilli
Which part of "no" is difficult to comprehend? I'd express it in one letter,
but I've not figured out how yet.

------
kronig
No, period.

\-- but slightly "yes" only if you like to much the idea of George Orwell

------
mike-cardwell
Run your own mail server and delete emails after reading them.

