It's interesting that the two strongest practical arguments EFF is making (based on how people will react to an adverse decision) are also the two that probably the least persuasive from a legal standpoint (based on laws and court precedents).
I'm talking about service providers moving their operations to more privacy-friendly jurisdictions, and improving protocols with e.g. perfect forward secrecy to make this sort of attack impractical.
So everyone suffers under an adverse decision in this case:
The US economy suffers because businesses seriously concerned about privacy choose to locate elsewhere
Law enforcement suffers because those businesses are no longer reachable when they have a legitimate reason to obtain the communications of spies, terrorists, or plain old criminals, and get a narrow warrant that properly protects the privacy of innocent bystanders.
Individual liberty suffers because a precedent will make it easier for people who don't care about privacy and use domestic providers subject to these overbroad warrants to be caught up in a surveillance dragnet
That being said, Congress, not the courts, is the proper venue to address those practical arguments. Will anyone care outside of technophile bubbles like HN? Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer.
I'm talking about service providers moving their operations to more privacy-friendly jurisdictions, and improving protocols with e.g. perfect forward secrecy to make this sort of attack impractical.
So everyone suffers under an adverse decision in this case:
The US economy suffers because businesses seriously concerned about privacy choose to locate elsewhere
Law enforcement suffers because those businesses are no longer reachable when they have a legitimate reason to obtain the communications of spies, terrorists, or plain old criminals, and get a narrow warrant that properly protects the privacy of innocent bystanders.
Individual liberty suffers because a precedent will make it easier for people who don't care about privacy and use domestic providers subject to these overbroad warrants to be caught up in a surveillance dragnet
That being said, Congress, not the courts, is the proper venue to address those practical arguments. Will anyone care outside of technophile bubbles like HN? Unfortunately, I think we all know the answer.