Senate bill 4051: Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act

Alec · Jun 30, 2020

THERE’S NOW AN EVEN WORSE ANTI-ENCRYPTION BILL THAN EARN IT. THAT DOESN’T MAKE THE EARN IT BILL OK.
By Riana Pfefferkorn on June 24, 2020 at 4:50 pm
https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2020/06/there’s-now-even-worse-anti-encryption-bill-earn-it-doesn’t-make-earn-it-bill-ok/

On Tuesday, June 23, Senators Graham (R-SC), Cotton (R-AR), and Blackburn (R-TN) introduced a bill that is a full-frontal nuclear assault on encryption in the United States. You can find the bill text here. It's been formally introduced as Senate bill 4051, which you can track here. (Other reactions to the bill so far: EFF, Techdirt.)

Dubbed the “Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act of 2020” (acronym: LAED, which my fingers definitely do not mis-type as LEAD every single time), the bill is an actual, overt, make-no-mistake, crystal-clear ban on providers from offering end-to-end encryption in online services, from offering encrypted devices that cannot be unlocked for law enforcement, and indeed from offering any encryption that does not build in a means of decrypting data for law enforcement.

The new bill applies to operating systems and apps and messaging and chat and social media platforms and email and cloud storage and videoconferencing and smartphones and laptops and desktops and your Xbox, and probably voting machines and IoT devices – basically any electronic device with just 1 GB of storage capacity. It isn’t just aimed at Apple, Google, Facebook, Signal, and the like, though it certainly applies to them; it goes well beyond, to include everyone from Box and Dropbox, to the full range of Microsoft’s products, to OEM handset manufacturers.

This bill is the encryption backdoor mandate we’ve been dreading was coming, but that nobody, during the past six years of the renewed Crypto Wars, had previously dared to introduce. Well, these three senators finally went there.
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Alec · Jun 30, 2020

Under this new law, cryptocurrency could become illegal
June 29, 2020
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/under-this-new-law-cryptocurrency-could-become-illegal-28066/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sm_notes&utm_campaign=notes&utm_content=20200629_crypto/

Any ‘zero knowledge’ encryption, whether it’s for storing files, sharing photos, texting friends, making video calls, sending encrypted emails, etc., will become illegal under this legislation.

And to be crystal clear about what that means, CRYPTOCURRENCY will effectively become illegal under the LEAD Act as well.

That’s right. Cryptocurrency relies on data encryption too.

Your ‘wallet’ is essentially a public key / private key combination. And in theory, only you are supposed to have access.

But that’s exactly what this legislation aims to prevent. The government wants backdoor access to everything.

Honestly this legislation would be hilarious if it weren’t actually true… because it shows how totally clueless these people really are.
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Senate bill 4051: Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act

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