Today, I’m going to step into an area that I rarely bring my company into. One of politics. I do so because we seem to be facing another turning point in how we handle data privacy and the rights people have online. And we’re clearly being lied to by our leaders.
As most terrible laws start out, the “EARN IT” act claims to be necessary for the protection of children. As a person who understands this technology, I can say with certainty that this law does nothing to protect children. What it does is to remove our rights as citizens and makes small business owners vulnerable to further suppression.
Encryption is nothing more then an equation however it’s usage is so important that you could not connect to this site without it. Without encryption, we would not be able to have a secure login system, or send financial data to our suppliers. Without encryption, the internet would cease to exist.
The equations that make up the various types of encryption have always been public knowledge. The information to utilize this technology exists all over the globe. We can send encrypted messages easily and can share them as easy as we can a picture on Facebook. This law doesn’t remove the equation from our grasp, but it does dictate to companies how they may use the technology. After this law passes, the equation will continue to be readily available. Leaving the law abiding citizens without the same protections as the criminals we are pretending to try and stop.
We must not give into these invasions into our rights. The timing of this law, during the corona virus outbreak is sickening. The fact that its got bi-partisan support is maddening. Please, contact your representatives and tell them NO!
Links
Change.org – Petition at change.org.
Whitehouse.gov – Petition Against Earn It Act