by Jason Snell
Strong encryption is not a luxury
The law enforcement officials criticizing Apple should put aside the sense of entitlement they’ve developed in those seven years and spend some time thanking Apple and Google for making things so easy for them for so long.
Law enforcement officials usually play on our fears whenever their powers are limited, but those limitations are what keep our society from being a police state. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 led to catastrophic predictions that many criminals would go free and society would be harmed if all arrested people were informed of their rights. Didn’t happen.
That’s what’s happening here. Law enforcement types are suggesting that Apple and Google are making their products safe for child molesters. It’s the same old tired “good people have nothing to hide” argument against privacy rights that’s been carted out for years.
(Bonus reading: Bruce Schneier, of course.)