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EthanThomasFirstPaper 3 - 05 Mar 2017 - Main.EthanThomas
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Anonymity, Propaganda, and Encryption | |
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> | This is an incomplete draft | | | -- By EthanThomas - 03 Mar 2017
Introduction | | | I. The Growing Need for Anonymity and Privacy
A. The Demand for Protected Communication Is Legitimate | |
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> | Discuss here the importance of privacy, its relationship to autonomy, and the legal and historical protections thereof | | | B. The Need for Protected Communication Is Stronger Than Ever | |
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> | Discuss here encroachments into private communications by the government as well as private actors | | | II. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Government's Vilification of Encryption | |
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> | The government has taken a strong stance against secure means of communication, and encryption in particular, by highlighting instances where criminals or terrorists use these tools, perpetuating the "if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" narrative, and insisting that privacy is compatible with uninhibited government access to records and communications. These tactics and the overall message against encryption ignore legitimate need for the technology, and they reveal troubling motives to the government's approach to technology, privacy, and free speech.
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| | | A. Association with Terrorism | |
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> | One tactic that has recently gained favor is to associate secure or anonymous communication with terrorism. To be sure, the association of tools the government dislikes with criminal behavior is not a new phenomenon. The current narrative, however, creates a strong tie between criminality and the use of certain technologies that aims to stigmatize their use.
In one report (by a private firm), Tor, VPN services, and several messaging applications are identified as "Tech for Jihad." Tor in particular has gained a reputation as "the web broswer for criminals," merely because it helps to anonymize users. Telegraph, an app which can send encrypted and self-deleting messages, has been identified as "the app of choice for jihadists."
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| | | B. Discounting of Legitimate Use | |
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> | _Discuss here _ | | | | |
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< | C. Motives and Dangers of This Campaign | >
> | C. Flaws, Motives, and Dangers of This Campaign
Importantly, this message is not only pushed by the govenrnment, but media perpetuates it as well. The treatment of encryption and anonymity is thus largely akin to propaganda. This treatment makes sense: encryption is easy to implement and access (for example, RSA encryption utilizes basic number theory, and a simple program can ccreate extremely difficult-to-break encryption), so the best way to keep people from it is to treat it as if it were dangerous or presumptively criminal. In other words, the goal is to change behavior through misinformation and fear, rather than through direct enforcement. This is at its core self-censorship and self-regulation, gradually imposed on the citizenry.
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| | | III. Moving Forward and Embracing Technology as a Defender of Autonomy | |
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> | If space, discuss here the contradiction in viewing this technoilogy as an enemy of freedom and security |
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