Ethics, Society & Politics
WTFrance
Decrypting French encryption law
December 27, 2017
2:15 PM – 2:45 PM Add to calendar
2:15 PM – 2:45 PM Add to calendar
Saal Clarke
France is part of the top countries trying to destroy encryption, especially through backdoor obligations, global interceptions, and effort to get access to master keys. French law already criminalises the use of encryption, imposing heavier penalties on people using it or regarding them as general suspects.
How can we oppose this trend? What political role for developers?
Contrary to popular opinion, the worst security legislation is not always coming from right-wing governments like Poland or Hungary but also from the 'social' democracies of liberal markets strengthening their supremacy by striving for authoritarian power.
France is part of the top countries trying to destroy encryption, especially through backdoor obligations.
Despite advices of all digital security experts, French officials are still speaking out against encryption, systematically using the fight against terrorism as a pretext.
As a result, French law considers people using encryption as guiltier than others, imposing heavier penalties on people using it or regarding them as general suspects. Legislators also aim at obliging firms to hand over the uncrypted version of a communication or even the encryption key if possible. The period for data retention of encrypted communication is much longer than for non encrypted communications.
After giving a brief historical summary of the french anti-crypto legislation, this talk will issue the possibilities to oppose this trend. Especially enquiring about what political role developers could play, this should definitely be understood as a call for action.
Additional information
| Type | lecture |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
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