We’ve got big news to share! Do you remember that we asked you to sign a petition asking President Obama to make a statement in support of strong encryption?
More than 100,000 people signed the petition and that got the White House’s attention! They’ve launched a public comment portal to hear from YOU about why YOU support encryption.
We need your help to convince the White House to take a strong position. Please take the time to make your comments to the White House. If you need a prompt, here are some ideas:
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Encryption keeps us safe online. Encryption is one of the most valuable tools we have to protect ourselves in the digital world. It protects the confidentiality of sensitive transactions, like online banking, keeps us safe from criminal attacks, and ensures our basic trust in online communications.
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Encryption protects people and saves lives. In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, LGBT individuals use encryption to communicate and seek support, and to protect themselves from government persecution. In contrast, in Mexico a citizen journalist reportedly was murdered after her phone was compromised and she was revealed to be the person behind a Twitter account for reporting information about local drug cartels.
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Encryption gives us the privacy necessary for exercising human rights. The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, David Kaye, recently released a report explaining, “encryption and anonymity, and the security concepts behind them, provide the privacy and security necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the digital age.”
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Laws to undermine encryption won’t stop terrorists from using strong crypto, but it will make us less safe. It’s simple. Even if Congress passed a law to weaken encryption in the United States, there would still be numerous foreign/open source crypto products on the market. Undermining encryption would not take these tools away from terrorists. It only makes it harder for average people to use them, making us less safe.
If you need other details, check out this awesome report by some of the smartest cryptographic experts.
We’ve been fighting the crypto wars for far too long. It’s time to give it our all and win this battle, decisively, for safety, security, and human rights online.