Monday, February 22, 2016

Ethics Assignment #3

If I was the CEO of a publicly-traded company that sold a phone that had encryption keys stored in the phone itself, and I was given a court order to make a backdoor to circumvent the phone's security, I would not follow that order (a scenario much like what Apple is going through right now).

Although the government did not invoke the Patriot Act ("PA") in this case, it has with other companies like Lovably (who had an encrypted email service that Snowden used) and Quest Communications (in which the CEO went to jail for not complying with the Patriot Act). IN the case of the Scheuerman's article, I would commit an act of civl disobedience because for me it would be the last resort. I would have no problem handing the government an encrypted file, but that's were my obedience of the law stops.

While the PA is the law of the land, there are parts of it that go against the 4th Amendment. One of the argument supporters of PA use is that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn't have no problem showing the government your hard drive or secret data. I believe that a slippery moral slope, because there are about 25,000 laws and statutes in this country, and a government official with enough resources, cleverness, and will could find something you're doing to be illegal.

I belive governments should not enact Orwellian type laws based on the fear that something bad might happened. Spying on the communications of innocent citizenry is unethical and immoral.

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