February 08, 2017

Trump, tech, and the future of government surveillance

By Adam Klein

Beginning with 2013’s Snowden leaks, the Obama administration publicly wrestled with various thorny issues at the intersection of technology and government surveillance.

When, how, and for what purposes should the government collect personal communications and other data?  Is it ever appropriate for the government to exploit software flaws for intelligence gathering or crimefighting, rather than sharing them with the developer?  Is strong encryption a fundamental right or a threat to public safety?

These questions now fall to President Trump.  After a promising start with the Trump Tower tech summit last December, relations appear to have soured.  The tech sector, with its tens of thousands of international employees, reacted furiously to the administration’s recent executive order on immigration and refugees.  Some leading tech companies are now considering whether to file a lawsuit challenging the order.

Read the full article at TechCrunch.

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