It is self-evident that any company that wishes to do business in the United States of America must abide by the laws set by the government. No one challenges this notion. When companies fight against the government on this issue (weakening encryption / adding back doors), however, they are not necessarily doing anything wrong. There is a profound tension that exists between the government's responsibility to protect the people and a company's responsibility to protect the interests of its consumers. In some cases, such as the Apple's, there is no solution. Apple, by installing a back door to their operating system, automatically puts at risk all of their millions of customers. But, the government, by not having access to the data that becomes available from this back door, may also put at risk the lives of some citizens. So, in the end, someone will be unhappy. As this issue continues to develop, we must ask ourselves, which risk is greater? Do we prioritize our data and privacy, or do we prioritize our security and the security of others? For each person, there will be a different stance.
When a service is made, the creators must realize and prepare for the potential abuses of that service. It is a fundamental responsibility of the creator to prevent misuse of the invention. The creator should receive all the credit for the success of their creation, but also must take responsibility for any failures and abuses.
Personally, I do support, in a limited sense, government back doors. There are so many hoops the government must already jump through just to get access to our data. So, one can assume, that if they are granted this access, there is a pretty good chance that the data is important to the continued security of our country. But, as doors tend to do, these must also be open and shut cases. The government must take every step to make sure that the back doors they request do not become permanent mandates on that product. It must not put the application's continued existence at risk by undermining the entire point of the application (such as adding a backdoor to an encrypted chat app would). Many of the arguments against back doors quickly fall down a slippery-slope. It is unreasonable to attempt to link adding a back door, that would not be permanent, to an Iphone to the government's ability to extract, at any moment, all of your personal data. If there is a real risk, if this data could save multiple lives, or expose an imminent danger to many people, then I think there is a persuasive case to be made for giving up a small amount of our privacy for the sake of increased national security. After all, we are all allowed to live such privileged lives, free of the constant-fear that pervades many war-torn areas of the world, due to the strong reach and security provided by the government.
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