Obama was in town the other day for the annual rite of the techno-hip. In keeping with my arm-chair, marginally-informed analyses of the last few days, I have some comments about a comment he made about the FBI’s effort to force Apple to fabricate a security backdoor.
Our President said, “We can’t fetishize our phones above other values.”
I’ve sat on that statement for several days. And now, I wish to try out that same reasoning in some different circumstances, just to see how the analytical technique holds up…
We can’t fetishize our banks above other values.
We can’t fetishize guns above other values.
We can’t fetishize the right to a jury of your peers above other values.
We can’t fetishize the right to vote above other values.
We can’t fetishize the right to remain silent above other values.
Do any of these statements make sense? No, they don’t.
This, in my humble opinion was simply an effort to trivialize the issue. To short-circuit informed thought. To radiate a false aura of balance. To play on fear. And to smear anyone who believes in encryption as a fetishist.
For what it’s worth, this page by Bruce Schneier has some pointers to non-arm-chair analyses of the same issue, and this article by Susan Crawford bluntly summarizes why the law is clear on this topic.