Cameron wants to ban encryption – he can say goodbye to digital Britain

UK prime minister David Cameron calls for more powers for spy agencies and greater control over digital communications.

On Monday David Cameron managed a rare political treble: he proposed a policy that is draconian, stupid and economically destructive.

The prime minister made comments widely interpreted as proposing a ban on end-to-end encryption in messages the technology that protects online communications, shopping, banking, personal data and more.

[I]n our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?, the prime minister asked rhetorically.

To most people in a supposed liberal democracy, the answer would surely be yes: the right to privacy runs right in parallel to our right for free expression. If you cant say something to a friend or family member without the fear the government, your neighbour or your boss will overhear, your free expression is deeply curtailed.

This means that even in principle Camerons approach is darkly paradoxical: the attack on Paris was an attack on free expression but its the government that intends to land the killing blow.

Terrorists must not be allowed to disrupt our way of life, were often told in the wake of atrocities. We must leave that to governments to do in the wakes of these attacks.

But its in the practicalities that the prime ministers approach slips from draconian to dull-witted. There is no such thing as good guy encryption and bad guy encryption. The same encryption that protects you and me protects companies, protects governments, and protects terrorists.

Encryption is what protects your private details when you send your bank details to a server. Its required for governments and companies when they store customer information, to protect it from hackers and others. And its built right in to whole hosts of messaging applications, including iMessage and WhatsApp.

If Cameron is proposing an end to encryption in the UK, then any information sent across the internet would be open for any company, government, or script kiddie with 10 minutes hacking experience to access. It would spell the end of e-commerce, private online communications and any hope of the UK having any cybersecurity whatsoever.

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Cameron wants to ban encryption – he can say goodbye to digital Britain