If our communication tools were decentralized, encrypted and open source, then the NSA would have had a much harder job listening in.
It makes eavesdropping without a warrant harder. However, in some countries the refusal to turn over a private key to the police is already a crime [1]. I don't find it hard to imagine that governments would seek to require that private keys are handed to the government or that they would reintroduce a Clipper-like chip. Especially if it becomes harder to wiretap via Facebook et al.
I agree that a political solution is strongly preferable, but I'm not sure if that's ever going to happen.
I am not sure. I think that under sufficient political pressure, it could happen in Europe. Perhaps with the wrong motivation (weakening the position of US companies), but some influential politicians (e.g. Neelie Kroes) have been very critical of Prism. Of course, we don't know that much of the breadth of data collection of EU security agencies...
It makes eavesdropping without a warrant harder. However, in some countries the refusal to turn over a private key to the police is already a crime [1]. I don't find it hard to imagine that governments would seek to require that private keys are handed to the government or that they would reintroduce a Clipper-like chip. Especially if it becomes harder to wiretap via Facebook et al.
I agree that a political solution is strongly preferable, but I'm not sure if that's ever going to happen.
I am not sure. I think that under sufficient political pressure, it could happen in Europe. Perhaps with the wrong motivation (weakening the position of US companies), but some influential politicians (e.g. Neelie Kroes) have been very critical of Prism. Of course, we don't know that much of the breadth of data collection of EU security agencies...
[1] http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/10/uk_police_can_...
[2] http://www.zdnet.com/prism-fallout-could-cost-us-cloud-indus...