> What is left to say about this? Does anyone have any new insights?
There is one thing that I'm really, really wondering about. Are large cities like London and New York basically screwed?
Let me explain: One large city with 10-20 million people is obviously far more vulnerable to terrorism than 10 smaller cities of 1-2 million each. Obviously Amnesty is correct that encryption is good for freedom of speech, human rights etc. Also, encryption is necessary for business/banking in a modern world. But let's not kid ourselves, terrorists can also hide behind encryption.
Terrorism is nothing new, and there will probably be more of it in the future. I'm not a law expert, but my impression is that the countries in Europe with the worst laws for privacy is the UK and France. Probably because that is where you find the largest cities: London and Paris. These people are scared/worried. I can see no other reason why they would enact laws like these.
So in the future, when there are more terrorism attacks, knee-jerk politicians (and their voters!) will probably want even more laws restricting encryption. This will make these places even worse for both human rights and business.
The industrial revolution basically created mega-cities. Is modern computer technology making them impractical?
I see your point. Much of this vulnerability is psychological, though. If you look at how many people have died from terrorism in the past, it's not many, at least compared to things like cancer, heart disease or traffic accidents. Still, I remember how most Americans were more than happy to give up their freedoms and human rights after September 11, in order to fight terrorism. Never mind that those freedoms and human rights were probably much of the reason why the US became great (compare it to say Argentina or Russia). Ironically, I think in order to preserve freedom during periods of terrorism, we would have to do away with democracy, since most voters are such morons.
There is one thing that I'm really, really wondering about. Are large cities like London and New York basically screwed?
Let me explain: One large city with 10-20 million people is obviously far more vulnerable to terrorism than 10 smaller cities of 1-2 million each. Obviously Amnesty is correct that encryption is good for freedom of speech, human rights etc. Also, encryption is necessary for business/banking in a modern world. But let's not kid ourselves, terrorists can also hide behind encryption.
Terrorism is nothing new, and there will probably be more of it in the future. I'm not a law expert, but my impression is that the countries in Europe with the worst laws for privacy is the UK and France. Probably because that is where you find the largest cities: London and Paris. These people are scared/worried. I can see no other reason why they would enact laws like these.
So in the future, when there are more terrorism attacks, knee-jerk politicians (and their voters!) will probably want even more laws restricting encryption. This will make these places even worse for both human rights and business.
The industrial revolution basically created mega-cities. Is modern computer technology making them impractical?