Computer Ethics, Spr 2016
Class 8
Week 7 Readings
You should read Chapter 3 of Baase, on Speech
Debates
Remember the Apple case, with Apple objecting to creating a "compromised"
version of iOS to decrypt a phone in-house?
The FBI
is known to be pursuing an order asking WhatsApp (owned by Facebook)
to provide access to encrypted messages.
WhatsApp uses the open-source Signal/TextSecure end-to-end-encryption
protocol.
The case is under seal, but the only way WhatsApp can
possibly comply is to install a compromised version of its app on a phone
that is currently in use by one of the suspects.
This puts the Apple case in a different light. It is no longer a matter of
limiting iOS compromise to a phone in Apple's physical custody.
The Obama administration is writing new rules to allow routine police access
to the NSA data: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/us/politics/obama-administration-set-to-expand-sharing-of-data-that-nsa-intercepts.html.
Originally the NSA shared this data secretly, in selected cases, and the
police authorities (eg the DEA) would engage in "parallel construction" --
the creation of a plausible alternative explanation for how they came by the
evidence -- in order to conceal the NSA's input.
The legal theory is that phone metadata is legal for the government to
collect without a warrant under Smith v Maryland, and so there is no reason
for this data not to be shared freely with the police.
Speech
Start with Batzel v Cremers and §230 of the CDA