Remix clone Hacker News

>“Privacy is really, really important and we all have the right to our privacy,” said Catherine De Bolle, executive director of Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union. “But when we see now that encrypted communication is really an enabler for crime, then we have to do something.”

That was a pretty terrifying line to read - the idea that they feel comfortable assuming a great deal of the public will agree with or find this reasonable is pretty worrisome.

▲

jfactorial 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"Freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, these are really, really important and we all have rights to them..." said a law enforcement director who would soon make clear they didn't believe in rights at all.

"But," they continued rather than stopping at defending rights, "when those rights can be used to enable activity which we deem criminal but hasn't yet been tested in court, we have to take them away."

▲

try_the_bass 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I think a great deal of the public does agree with this sentiment, though?

In general, "the public" is usually okay with things that reduce anti-social behavior.

▲

dghlsakjg 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The public would probably say that they agree that things that reduce anti-social behavior.

But if you instead phrase it as: “should international law enforcement have a perpetual copy of every single written message you have ever sent in order to reduce anti social behavior?” You will discover that there is a limit to what people will tolerate.

	▲	lb1lf 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There hopefully is, but it never ceases to amaze me how many, even highly intelligent, reasonable people, buy into the 'I don't do anything illegal, hence I have nothing to hide and off to the races we go' mindset. Heck, even if I try to point out all the fun side effects - say, how embarrassing it would be if a copy of your, ahem, correspondence with that cute intern was leaked, or simple guilt by association, like finding yourself on a watchlist after buying a car from a suspected Islamic militant or something similar, I am mostly met with a shrug and a variation on the theme 'Oh, they'd never do that / surely if that was to happen, it would be fixed in due course'. Basically, I more and more feel like the odd man out - as my position that 'Seeing as I am not doing anything criminal, the authorities have no business snooping on me' is seen as the militant one. Won't somebody think of the children, etc. Sigh. Rant over.

▲

devmor 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean that it is worrisome that the public would agree with this, or at least that public sentiment is shifting in that direction enough that this statement doesn't cause visceral outlash against anyone that would say it.