Encryption is an extremely important issue to me, and I honestly think that it should be an important issue to everyone. If somebody looks at the recent battle between the FBI and Apple and says that “it doesn’t matter to me,” they don’t understand how important encryption is in their daily lives. Imagine a world internet traffic was completely unencrypted. It would essentially be impossible to perform any sort of business on the Internet that required security. Digital financial transactions would essentially become unfeasible, as anybody who was listening in would have the private information of both parties. Business transactions would become impossible as well, as anybody listening in could obtain company secrets. Even visiting simple websites would become troubling, as without Authentication/Digital Signatures we would have no idea if the website we are visiting is a spoof. The internet would become useless without the security protocols behind it that many don’t even realize exist.
So anybody whose says encryption isn’t important to them either doesn’t understand it or has absolutely no interaction with the digital world on a daily basis. I tend to believe that the former is true. Those that say “they have nothing to hide” really mean that they have nothing to hide from the government. While I would argue that this probably isn’t true, my main point is that the government is not the only entity you are hiding information from. Even the perfect, upstanding citizen with nothing to hide from the government wouldn’t want their information in the hands of criminals. Encryption keeps our information from the government (sometimes) and criminals. There is no one or the other.
I would have to admit that while I am very much pro encryption, I probably have not let my stance affect my political, financial, and social actions as much as it should. Before this battle between the FBI and Apple, I did not even realize that encryption was a hot topic. I just assumed everyone understood it’s essential for most people’s daily lives. This was probably a little naive of me, as government agencies are going to have a problem with there being any information out there that they don’t have access to. Now that I am starting to realize the issue, I think I will have my beliefs affect my actions more.
Politically I think this is very hard to do. It is really hard to get any information on candidates concrete stances on encryption in the upcoming election. Almost every candidate has either not touched the issue, or has gone back and forth on it. Simply this is not an issue that is important to the average American voter, so it make sense that candidates would not spend that much time on it. It’s tough to figure out what a given candidate will do once they are in office. It is much easier to change financial and social actions. Financially you can stop supporting companies that give in to the government demands for backdoors. Although I don’t purchase Apple products on a regular basis, I will certainly support them less if they give into the FBI (or more if they don’t). Socially, the best thing I think to do when this argument is brought up is to make sure that all parties are informed. Make sure they actually know what encryption is, how it is essential to everyday life, and how they really do have things to hide.
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