Today, I learned that:
On Sunday evenings or afterwards as a podcast, one of my favorite technology programs is Leo Laporte’s This Week in Tech. Among other things, this week’s edition discussed at length a draft of a US Congress bill to obligate any provider of encryption solutions to data communication to also offer means of decrypting it when summoned by the authorities. Scary stuff! Reference #1 below appoints to the TWiT show.
Reference #2 below discusses the same draft, and here is a citation of that article:
“Feinstein-Burr ‘encryption bill’
A draft of the long-awaited Feinstein-Burr ‘encryption bill’ surfaced late Thursday night and has law and tech experts reeling.
“To uphold both the rule of law and protect the interests and security of the United States, all persons receiving an authorized judicial order for information or data must provide, in a timely manner, responsive, intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance to obtain such information or data,” the discussion draft states.
The draft of the “Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016” essentially requires any device manufacturer, software manufacturer, electronic communication service, remote computing service providers, “or any person who provides a product or method to facilitate a communication or the processing or storage of data” to comply with court orders and hand over any plain-text communications the government demands.
Tom Mentzer, press secretary for Senator Diane Feinstein, D-CA, who is heading the bill alongside Senator Richard Burr, R-N.C., shared their joint statement to Digital Trends: “We’re still working on finalizing a discussion draft and as a result can’t comment on language in specific versions of the bill,” according to the statement. “However, the underlying goal is simple: when there’s a court order to render technical assistance to law enforcement or provide decrypted information, that court order is carried out. No individual or company is above the law. We’re still in the process of soliciting input from stakeholders and hope to have final language ready soon.” But Mentzer also said “nothing has been released by the committee,” meaning the discussion draft will likely be revised greatly before it becomes a bill.”
Photos taken during my afternoon visit to the Yuyuan garden on 2005-04-10
Continuing my pleasant Sunday sightseeing in Shanghai, that I wrote about yesterday, above are four photos from the impressive Yuyuan garden. Reference #3 below has a complete description of the garden.
… That’s what I learned in school !
Refs.:
1: This Week in Tech 557 – A trainwreck of Brobdingnagian proportions
What did you learn in School today? 