This bullshit comes up every five years or so and has done since the naughties. It goes like this.
- Government states they need a backdoor to encryption to stop terrorism/pedophilia.
- Privacy and tech groups say it's a bad idea, children's charities and anti-terrorist groups say it's a good idea.
- Someone in the Civil Service informs a top politician that if there is a backdoor, hackers will find a way in and that could mean leaks of things the government doesn't want the public to see like their affair with their intern or how they are doing to abolish devolution.
- They use an event to cover it up again.
- Next government, return to step one.
This has happened under Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Boris, Truss wasn't around long enough (lol), and now Sunak.
It's funny because Boris Johnson is currently using an encrypted phone to stop giving evidence to the Covid Enquiry (namely his WhatsApp messages, yes, the UK government uses fuckin' WhatsApp.
We keep telling them it won't work, that it will only put the data of law abiding citizens at risk, but they don't listen and they keep playing the same game over and over.