Encryption, anonymity, and the vital role they play in your life
A few weeks ago, I visited the Newseum, located in Washington D.C., to view one of its current exhibits called “Inside today’s FBI”. This exhibit aims to show how law enforcement hunts down the bad guys, from global terrorists to cyber criminals.
If you visited, I’m sure you enjoyed learning how the FBI has your back…and you probably also learned how the bad guys use anonymity tools and encryption to “conceal their wrongdoing.” You may have also noticed that the exhibit made an effort to keep this question front-and-center: is your privacy being invaded?
I was so grateful to see one of my favorite museums posing a very important question — except I was immediately disappointed about how this question and several misconceptions continued to be presented.
For example, after you learn on a touch screen monitor how Silk Road operated in the deep web, you are asked: “Should society be allowed to create technology that is beyond the reach of law enforcement?”
56 percent of people said no.
Of course you would say no. In this exhibit, you only learned how anonymity and encryption were used with malicious intent. People are so frustrated about terrorism and cybercrime these days that they are willing to pay the price of security with their privacy.
But there’s something that the exhibit failed to teach you: these tools also save lives.
What you probably didn’t know
Anonymity tools like the Tor Project, presented in the exhibit as a “nefarious tool”, are actually vital tools that help people in high-risk situations get their work done. Most commonly known for its browser to help users navigate the web without fear of surveillance or to get around censorship, Tor is used by people whose lives depend on it: human rights activists in repressive countries, whistleblowers trying to get the truth out, and yes — journalists and bloggers fighting for freedom of the press. Learn how Tor works and why you should use it.
How it can help you
You don’t have to belong to the groups mentioned above to get the life-saving benefit of using Tor. Perhaps you’re in a domestic violence situation and you need to communicate anonymously. Maybe you’re affected by an illness and you need to research it privately. Your search engine and your internet service provider know you well…but they don’t need to know these details of your life.
Everyday businesses like banks and hospitals use encryption to protect your financial transactions, documents, health records, and all of your sensitive data.
More than saving lives, encryption and anonymity tools can help you in your daily life by protecting you from hackers, third-party cookies collecting and selling your data, censorship, mass surveillance and they keep the internet free and open for everyone.
Other tools that protect your privacy include DuckDuckGo for private search, Signal for private messaging, and Privacy Badger for detecting and blocking trackers.
There are big players in the tech industry who are taking a stand against the abuse of our privacy online. For example, Apple revealed pro-privacy changes to Safari at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. Now Safari will come with “intelligent tracking prevention” to help protect your privacy.
Take the poll again
So now that you know that encryption and anonymity tools are important contributions to society — that they save lives and protect our privacy and security online — do you still think we shouldn’t build these technologies?
Most importantly, will you help support the companies and organizations that create these tools so that they remain available for those whose lives depend on it?
My hope is that this post helped you understand the importance of privacy and internet freedom and that you will choose to defend it.
Here are some ideas on how to defend encryption:
- Support organizations like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
- Tell your friends and family about the importance of encryption and anonymity tools and how they save lives and protect your privacy.
- Support businesses and organizations that create encryption tools so that they can continue to be available for journalists, bloggers, and human rights activists fighting for freedom.
