As worded, this would apply to every Turing-complete system that exists, right? Or is it meant to target specific pieces of software - like GPG and Signal and Protonmail and TOR - where the governments don’t have a backdoor?
Well, how delightfully vague. A “sophisticated, encrypted communication device” could be just about anything that connects to the internet.
That’s how totalitarian regimes operate, they create vague laws that can then be applied to prosecute whomever is deemed to be a threat to the regime.
Also known as computer
I think they’d love to outlaw general purpose computing. We can already see a preview of what that looks like with how mobile devices work. You don’t have root privileges on the device, and it’s explicitly locked from you. You are only allowed to install software from the official sources, and this software can be wiped remotely from your device if its deemed inappropriate. This is the future of computing that’s being envisioned. The computer just becomes another appliance as opposed to a general purpose computing machine that you yourself can program.
@yogthos @ThreeHopsAhead as long as you stick to windows or linux on your computer and degoogled android on your phone that won’t be possible.
The part I’m worried about is how long it’s going to be possible to buy hardware that’s not locked down. It’s almost impossible to buy a phone that doesn’t need to be hacked to get root nowadays.
I certainly hope so.
Microsoft is going the way of “controlled computing” by requiring things like TPM and Secure Boot. Once the hardware and OS (Win 11) are used by enough people they can start blocking access to certain features and even online content for any device which doesn’t have Microsoft approved hardware and OS. They tried this way back twenty years ago and the community pushed back enough that they dropped the idea, but now it’s back and stronger than ever.
Bye bye crypto wallets
No cryptobros at least!
Making math illegal is a bold move.
forbidden knowledge :)
Is it only a matter of time until they scan packets with DPS to find encryption and send the police hit squad to your house
Sure and then you use a large language model to generate innocuous messages that have sternographic encoding of your real message. And then they scan for sternography. And then the identify people who talk weirdly. The rabbits hole never ends.
Making thought and math illegal is just crazy. You’re sabotaging your own people.
That’s right, if UK regime can’t read your private communications then off to the salt mines with you.
