[NewsPoster]

In interview on the hot-potato topic of the line between law-enforcement enthusiasm and Constitutional rights to privacy in the digital age, Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that he would support a congressional commission to work with the tech industry and other experts to address the sometimes-difficult definition of security, encryption, and privacy rights on modern devices, which are the 21st century equivalent of the "person and papers" the Constitution protects.

A bipartisan effort by Senate Intelligence Committee member Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) and House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) hopes to put forward a proposal to create exactly that sort of special congressional commission to study the current law, evauluate the ongoing debate and consider both sides of the issue, and make recommendations to the government on digital privacy issues, national security, and protected individual liberties.

The goal of the proposal is to gather together congresspeople and tech experts, privacy advocates, law enforcement, government intelligence agencies and other players affected by the debate, and issue an interim report in six months, followed by a full assessment a year after the first gathering. "In many ways, the current litigation that's taking place might not have been needed if we had this kind of approach a few years back," Senator Warner said in a statement. "My fear is that we are talking past each other."

[prl99]

The only acceptable result of this commission will be laws defining the right to privacy, including the use of encryption, for all people and NOT the right of our government to force a backdoor of any kind for any police type agency. Criminals will always find a way around any law and method to hide what they're doing. These new laws need to protect honest people from government overreach as well as protecting them (us) from criminal activity (hacking, ID theft, etc). People are not above the law but neither is our government no matter how often they try by using the terrorist tag.

[DiabloConQueso]

Boy, that's putting the cart before the horse.

Don't you think it would be a good idea to study "digital privacy" first, and then go around making requests for companies to allow weakened security in their devices, fully armed with valid information that came as a result of the studies?

Nah, let's shoot first and ask questions later.

[prl99]

@Diablo if your comment was towards my comment, then you don't understand that every commission at any level already has a result in mind. When did you attend a work meeting where your boss didn't already have a planned result? Members of congress already have picked sides and know how much support they have otherwise they wouldn't have called this commission.

[DiabloConQueso]

It was directed at the article, not you.

My point is that it's silly to forge ahead with something like, "We need to weaken the cryptographic security of a device so we can see what's been encrypted," and then, after the fact, say, "Let's study what the effects of weakening the cryptographic security of a device would be."

Howabout we figure out what the impacts would be by studying it, then forge ahead or not based upon those results. Nah, that wouldn't be the American Way! Shoot first, then form a committee to study and deliver a report on how bad it is to shoot first.