Today the battle between law enforcement and privacy is being fought over encryption. One response to Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extent of U.S. government surveillance has been growing popular insistence on encryption – such as the end-to-end encrypted communications used in iPhones or WhatsApp to which no phone or Internet company holds an access key. Meeting this week in Ottawa, the “Five Eyes” intelligence sharing partnership – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States – is considering an Australian proposal to mandate such a key, or “back door,” to encryption. Officials in the U.S. and U.K. have made similar proposals.
