Encryption Backdoors

Resolution

It should be legal to compel tech companies to provide a backdoor to law enforcement.

The debate will be “Oxford Style” and follow this format.

Resources

Here are some resources and questions to help guide and nuance the debate:

Questions

1. How can we balance national security interests with individual privacy rights?
2. If backdoors are mandated, who should have access to them? Only domestic law enforcement? Foreign governments?
3. What are the technical implications of building encryption backdoors? Can they be made secure against malicious actors?
4. How do backdoors affect trust in technology companies and their products?
5. What precedent does mandating backdoors set for authoritarian regimes?
6. Are there alternative approaches to lawful access that don’t require weakening encryption?

Readings

• Apple vs. FBI: The San Bernardino Case
• Keys Under Doormats: Mandating Insecurity by Requiring Government Access to All Data and Communications (2015)
• Going Dark: Encryption, Technology, and the Balances Between Public Safety and Privacy
• The Crypto Wars Are Over! (Wired, 1999)