“I’ve Got Nothing to Hide” and other misunderstandings
Daniel Solove makes good arguments against the I’ve got nothing to hide argument. This Tech and Law blog further distills the points quite nicely.
Archive for 2010 October
Man jailed over computer password refusal
The UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, RIPA, has been used to jail a 19 year-old who refused to give his password to police. I have been aware of the law for some time and the fact that refusing to cough up your password could get you jailed but this is the first case I have read about the act being used.
If you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve got nothing to hide
will always be the line trotted by some hearing of this. I have trouble agreeing. Most of us have done something we would like to keep private. It might be something that while not illegal could be frowned upon by others. Where does it end? Given the vast amount of data we are storing electronically our hard drives, flash drives and online accounts essentially become a reflection of our thoughts.
I think this is one step away from mind control or, more accurately, obligatory submission to mind reading.
If you are travelling across the border at some of the more, shall we say, jumpy or snoopy jurisdictions make sure you leave your data at home. Access your data over encrypted sessions and clean your drives before you get to the border. To my knowledge these jurisdictions currently include the UK, US and Singapore but I won’t be surprised to see the list grow.
Question: How do they know his password is 50 characters long? Bad crypto implementation?