The Importance of Encryption

This mini essay was regarding a news article back around 2022 regarding the government wanting a backdoor into iPhone’s encryption. I wrote this as a response to how disastrous this would be for technology. Unfortunately the link to the original news article is broken (thanks Google News) so we can’t see the exact source…

I can’t begin to describe what kind of impact this [law] could have on technology as a whole. If the US government were to enforce a government mandated backdoor into iPhone’s encryption technology, it will only be a matter of time before this is required everywhere. If this were to become the case it would render encryption vulnerable and the security it provides would become effectively worthless. Why? Just because this backdoor would be set up to be used by law enforcement there’s no way to prevent it from being misused by “the good guys”. There’s also no guarantee that this digital secret wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands! Once the cat is out of the bag it’s game over. Computers have no ability to determine right from wrong the way humans can.

Encryption is one of the security measures to ensure the safety of digital information, only the person with the key can have access. If the government were to install a way to circumvent this security and it becomes compromised… technology would fall apart. There would be no trust. Would you want to do business online? Would you feel safe typing your credit card number in a website? Surely the rest of the world would not be compelled to comply with the US laws about encryption, no one would want to do technological business in America with such a hole in the very foundation of how our computer systems work! Storage of passwords would become useless, sensitive personal data would be exposed. Medical records, social security numbers, banking information, ANYTHING EVER put into any US computer would become obtainable. Our society has now become dependent on this technology, everything would fall apart if the government decides to interfere with a process which I suspect they do not fully understand! The safety of digital information for everyone is more important than the ability to access a few criminal’s information on a whim.