U.S. Aims to Force Web Services to Compromise Message Encryption

Found on eWEEK on Sunday, 05 May 2013
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Even if it accomplished nothing else, the Middle Eastern governments’ crackdowns on communications during the Arab Spring movement two years ago demonstrated how much governments, in general, and repressive governments, in particular, hate encryption—particularly in the hands of private citizens.

So now we come to the FBI and other U.S. law-enforcement agencies that are trying to read the text messages, chats and the email of people they think are bad guys. The feds say that they’re doing this to fight crime and terrorism. And they say they have a right to get information if they have a legally obtained wiretap order.

In other words, if you can’t provide the feds with a back door to your system, the government will keep piling on fines until you go out of business.

Dictatorships are such nice examples, aren't they? You don't have to care about your citizens and do whatever you want. I bet some of the "democratic" politicians secretly dream of such a system; and the agencies working in the shadows even more so.