Who knows your deepest, darkest secrets? What about the not-so-dark ones, like how many times you’ve watched Fifty Shades of Grey or where you took that Uber last week, or what your Venmo charge was for? Chances are Apple, Facebook, Amazon, or Google have some of those secrets on file.
And since they own your personal data, they control who gets it. What happens when the government wants to take a look?
This is where a case like the terrorist attack in San Bernardino gets tricky. There, the FBI wanted access to one consumer’s encrypted data, but, Apple purports, if they gave them a “master key” into one iPhone, they would effectively be unlocking hundreds of millions of other iPhones, creating vulnerabilities for all customer data.
But is a back-door, or master key like this constitutional? Could it be exploited by more nefarious actors? Or is it a necessary preventative measure that could end up saving lives? At Intelligence Squared U.S., they will be tackling this issue head on, with an Oxford-style debate featuring two former Homeland Security officials on either side (Michael Chertoff and Stewart Baker), as well as two Berkeley law professors (John Yoo and Catherine Crump).
If you haven’t been to an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate, here’s how it works: two teams of two argue for and against a sharply-framed motion. The live audience votes to declare a winner, and regardless of which side wins, civility and respect prevail.
Make up your own mind with fair and balanced arguments from both sides of the debate. And there’s a bonus: SFist readers get 30% off tickets to IQ2US debates. Enter Code SFIST30 at checkout.
If you can’t attend the debate, don’t fret: watch the live stream online and cast your vote at iq2us.org.
This post is brought to you by Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates.