Last week I came across 2 technology news, diametrically different,
which demonstrate the double standards of the Trump Government regarding
the issue of people's privacy and the use of technology.
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| Huawei Ban: the US is preparing to issue new limitation |
The first was the announcement by the
Secretary of Commerce of the United States Wilbur Ross, who reported
that the North American Government is preparing to issue new limitations
and restrictions so that North American companies can deliver
technological components to Huawei.
The
new restrictions are added to the intense lobby that the North American
delegation has made so that governments such as France, Germany, and
the United Kingdom do not allow the use of equipment from the Chinese
giant in the deployment of new 5G networks in their respective
countries.
The reason for the Trump Government
continues to be based on the possibility that Huawei offers a “back
door” to the Chinese Government so that it can access all the
communications that pass through its devices, be it final devices such
as cell phones and tablets or through the communication networks where
there are Huawei components, which constitutes a “national security
problem for the United States”.
The important word here
is "possibility" because, despite their insistence, the gringos have
not been able to verify that said back door exists even though the
Huawei team has offered to provide the code of their systems and devices
for review. (something that some European agencies have already done).
Position 1 - That a government has a back door through which it can spy on people is bad.
The
second news has to do with Apple and the tantrum that Attorney General
Bill Barr and President Donald Trump have armed so that Apple unlocks 2
iPhones related to the shooting that occurred last December at a
military base in Pensacola, FL in which a Saudi citizen killed 3 people
and injured 8 others.
The
issue is that what seems, at first glance, a perfectly understandable
"request" by the North American authorities, is a requirement for Apple
to believe in the codes of its devices, applications, and backdoor
operating systems through which the government can have access to.
The
North American Government knows that it is not possible to unlock an
iPhone (or 2) without its keys because the operating system encrypts its
contents and Apple does not have a master key to unlock it. The only
way to do it is, then, that in the new versions of the Apple operating
system develop such a back door, save it and use it in case the
government (only the North American, because it would be illogical to
hand that capacity over to a government like the Chinese) ask you.
Position 2 - It is the last straw that a company like Apple does not give the (North American) Government a back door to access the devices
If
you see double standards? You have to find Huawei because "suddenly" it
has given the Chinese government that backs door but you have to go
against Apple because it does not want to create such a back door for
the North American government.
The privacy of users
does not matter if I (the Trump government) need control, but it is
super important if the Chinese are asking for that control. The
privacy issue is extremely complex. More when we know - thanks to
Edward Snowden - what the North American Government has done in the past
and how it has spied on its citizens.
More when we
know what he is doing in the present via alliances with companies like
Clear view (our discussion on the subject in the digital Podcast chapter
of the week came out cool, I invite you to listen to it).
More
so when one reviews that the law has said over and over again that the
presumption of innocence prevails and that the risk of opening said
"back door" lies in the fact that just as the world's governments can
use it for legal purposes and to protect their Citizens can also do it
to go against those who are critical of their actions, as in the case of
Jamal Khashoggi and the government of Saudi Arabia (in which Jeff
Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post and Amazon, now became involved)
or that a hacker seizes them and does as many evil things as he wants
without anyone being able to stop them.
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