> It used to be the case that in the physical world, using warrants to force physical access (backed up with coercive force where required) was a well-worked out system with checks and balances that (mostly) worked well to balance privacy and law enforcement concerns. Encryption technology has borked that balance...
I would agree with most of this, but actually I believe the wide-spread use of encryption isn't what has borked the system. That was the wide-spread use of domestic spying, tapping every phone line in the world, eves-dropping on every conversation, and data mining every single electronic communication.
Wide-spread use of encryption has been a direct reaction of the tech companies to that (following the Snowdon leaks), and has not broken the balance, but helped to restore it. Remember how the spooks still managed to break into the single iphone, in their physical possession, in the San Bernando case? That is how things used to work, and is clearly acceptable.
Nobody every opened every single envelope to read and catalogue every bit of physical mail sent. Why should they have the right or ability to do that now?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
