Software Engineers != Locksmiths
The government wants technology companies to purposely weaken encryption and implement backdoors in their products for national security and surveillance. I believe there is something seriously wrong with this idea, because if the government is able to get their hands on our data, somehow, someone else out there will be able to get their hands on our data as well. In the article Inside the FBI’s encryption battle with Apple, it mentions that Tim Cook says the backdoor is “too dangerous to create”. This is very true, because instead of an increase of national security, we may see a decrease, as sensitive information pertaining to the government will be susceptible to being leaked via backdoor as well. Everyone suffers, except the malicious people trying to gain private data for their advantage. Therefore, tech companies should not weaken the security of their products just for surveillance, because it can backfire.
Companies like Apple are ethically responsible for protecting the privacy of their users. Like Apple says in their customer letter, everything from private messages to financial information to even health data is stored in our phones. We trust Apple with all this data. Therefore, all this information needs to be protected from those who may want to use this information without our permission. It is similar to us telling something private to our friends. We expect them not to publicly announce to everyone, especially to those who may use that information maliciously.
Although saving lives and protecting our nation is important, having a backdoor may not always accomplish this. As I mentioned previously, there could be a decrease in national security with backdoors, since EVERYONE, including the government, is susceptible to their information being leaked. For example, if secret military information were to be discovered, that would cause a lot of harm to the US. I believe the FBI is also acting unethical for not reporting the exploit they found mentioned in the Washington Post article. By keeping the vulnerability a secret, they are not giving Apple a chance to patch what needs to be fix, and allowing other malicious people to try to reverse engineer an exploit they now know exists, to use for their own means. This could cause so many more problems.
There is also the fact that many lives would be essential ruined, if certain data were leaked that didn’t pertain to national security. A popular animated series, South Park, portrayed what would happen if a program called “Troll Trace” were released. This program would essentially allow anyone to look up anyone else’s Internet history ever. The aftermath of this program being released resulted in chaos. People lose relationships, jobs, and lives over things they prefer to keep quiet. Although some of these things they prefer to keep quiet may not be ethical or condoned, if it doesn’t relate to the law then it is their personal business that they need to handle themselves.
In terms of national security, yes, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear. However, everyone has their own things they prefer to keep less transparent, such as messages or financial assets perhaps. If we create a magic key that unlocks everything, there is no guarantee how it will be used or who it will be used by. In a perfect world, we may be able to make that work, but even then that raises dilemmas of to what extent does a case justify using this magic key.
