{"id":59016,"date":"2015-06-01T12:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=59016"},"modified":"2015-05-31T18:46:28","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T17:46:28","slug":"u-n-special-rapporteur-governments-must-not-backdoor-encryption-for-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/06\/u-n-special-rapporteur-governments-must-not-backdoor-encryption-for-spying\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N. Special Rapporteur: Governments Must Not \u201cBackdoor\u201d Encryption for Spying"},"content":{"rendered":"

A landmark new United Nations report is \u201cthe first attempt to create a legal framework for digital security,\u201d David Kaye, the U.N.\u2019s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, told The Intercept <\/em>in an interview Thursday [28 May 2015].<\/p>\n

\"Valentin<\/a>

Valentin Flauraud\/Keystone\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

The report<\/a> is urging governments not to ban or mandate surveillance \u201cbackdoors\u201d in encryption and anonymity tools that are used to protect the privacy of communications.<\/p>\n

The 18-page document<\/a>, published Thursday, was authored by Kaye and comes amid efforts to crack down<\/a> on encryption technology in the United States, with federal agencies claiming that encryption is hampering their ability to investigate criminals and terrorists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the legal framework that human rights law establishes for freedom of expression,\u201d Kaye said. \u201cHopefully advocates will make use of it when cases around privacy and freedom of expression get litigated.\u201d<\/p>\n

His report says that \u201cdiscussions of encryption and anonymity have all too often focused only on their potential use for criminal purposes in times of terrorism. But emergency situations do not relieve States of the obligation to ensure respect for international human rights law.\u201d<\/p>\n

It recommends that:<\/p>\n

States should promote strong encryption and anonymity. National laws should recognize that individuals are free to protect the privacy of their digital communications by using encryption technology and tools that allow anonymity online. Legislation and regulations protecting human rights defenders and journalists should also include provisions enabling access and providing support to use the technologies to secure their communications.<\/em><\/p>\n

States should not restrict encryption and anonymity, which facilitate and often enable the rights to freedom of opinion and expression. Blanket prohibitions fail to be necessary and proportionate. States should avoid all measures that weaken the security that individuals may enjoy online, such as backdoors, weak encryption standards and key escrows.<\/em><\/p>\n

Human rights group Access<\/a> said in a statement that it welcomed the report, calling it a \u201clandmark\u201d piece of work that showed encryption was \u201cfundamental\u201d for exercising freedom of expression. \u201cIt\u2019s a sober rebuke of baseless fear-mongering from those who say encryption only helps criminals and terrorists,\u201d said Access\u2019s senior policy counsel Peter Micek.<\/p>\n

Encryption works by scrambling communications so that if they are intercepted, they cannot be read or listened to, unless the encryption is broken or circumvented. It is routinely used to secure online banking and shopping transactions and increasingly to protect the privacy of instant messages, emails and phone calls. Tools used to browse the Internet anonymously \u2014 such as Tor<\/a> or Virtual Private Networks \u2014 mask your computer\u2019s unique IP address, making it harder for law enforcement, intelligence agencies, advertisers and Internet service providers to track your online activity.<\/p>\n

Since the first surveillance revelations from National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, more companies have adopted encryption to secure their customers\u2019 data and communications. Last year, for instance, the messaging app WhatsApp announced<\/a> that it was implementing strong encryption for its more than 600 million users. Moreover, in the aftermath of the Snowden leaks, more people reportedly<\/a> started using anonymity tools like Tor to browse the Web.<\/p>\n

The boom in encryption has sparked a panicked response from governments and law enforcement agencies. The FBI has attacked companies for beefing up their usage of encryption because \u201cbad guys<\/a>\u201d can use it to conceal their nefarious activities. And the U.K. prime minister has appeared to agree, suggesting<\/a> he would be open to some sort of encryption ban.<\/p>\n

But Kaye, the U.N. free expression rapporteur, told The Intercept<\/em> that he wants to see more encryption, not less. He says he would like to see a transition towards an \u201cencrypted Internet,\u201d with encryption built into websites, email providers and other communication providers by default. He says governments should only be allowed to decrypt communications on a \u201ctargeted, case-by-case basis\u201d when approved by a court, subject to domestic and international law.<\/p>\n

Encryption is \u201cnot about hiding, it\u2019s about exercising the right that you have under human rights law,\u201d said Kaye, who is also the director of the International Justice Clinic at the University of California, Irvine. \u201cIf you create an Internet that is encrypted and is secure, you are giving people a default setting of privacy which advances their ability to do research, to exchange information, to do all the things that they are guaranteed under human rights law. That move is critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaye says he solicited contributions to his report from all 193 U.N. member states<\/a>, including from governments in the the Five Eyes surveillance alliance \u2014 the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Documents from Snowden have previously shown how spy agencies in Five Eyes countries have worked in secret to circumvent<\/a> and attack<\/a> widely used encryption and anonymity tools.<\/p>\n

About a dozen government representatives sent replies to Kaye, including U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Pamela Hamamoto, who asserted<\/a> that the United States was committed to firmly supporting \u201cthe development and robust adoption of strong encryption.\u201d Other Five Eyes countries did not respond.<\/p>\n

Kaye is due to formally present his report to the U.N.\u2019s human rights council (pictured above) on June 17.<\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

Email the author: ryan.gallagher@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A landmark new United Nations report is \u201cthe first attempt to create a legal framework for digital security,\u201d David Kaye, the U.N.\u2019s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, told The Intercept in an interview Thursday [28 May 2015].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-whistleblowing-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}