British Accuse David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald's Partner, Of 'Terrorism'

[ljm2002]

53. Yes all of that is true...

...but here's the thing. Either we allow our "betters" (the elites, the government, the corporations) exclusive access to this technology, or not. Yes I'm aware that we all use encryption routinely whenever we pay a bill online or access a page using https. But these uses are controlled, not consciously by the user but by the entities providing the service.

People can encrypt their emails now, to be sure, but it takes some effort and knowledge. I'd like to see it become standard, and not something that only techies tend to use. The use of encryption should be available to the masses. There are always criminals who will misuse the technology. Anything useful is a double edged sword and can be used for good or for evil or (usually) in a neutral way.

Anyway, organized crime and child pornographers already use encryption. They tend to be ahead of the curve on this stuff, for obvious reasons. I'd like to see it available, easily, to the masses so we can go about our business without the benevolent overseers being able to monitor every word. Especially since we know they go after political dissidents (usually leftist dissidents -- for some reason the right wing wack jobs seem to get a free ride), and activists of all kinds.

Right now, governments in general represent the well-to-do and not the majority of their populations. We the people, of the US and the world, need tools that will allow us to fight back. I don't believe that having our communications open to government surveillance by default is a good system in this day and age, not at all.