Donald Trump on Encryption

Many have forgotten the topic since it was in the news many months ago in early 2016, but encryption was at one point a controversial topic in the American news cycle.

Back in February, the FBI asked Apple, Inc to create a version of its iPhone operating system that would allow the investigators to hack their way into the iPhone 5C of the San Bernardino shooter. Apple refused, saying that the privacy of all of their customers is of paramount interest to them, and they were not going to aid the FBI in creating a precedent where they help law enforcement with anyone they want to get into the phone of.

This turned into a national conversation and debate over encryption, which reached critical mass in the following months. Encryption can be loosely defined in the context of consumer electronics as the process of encoding messages or information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it. In this sense, it means that it's almost impossible to get into someone's locked iPhone unless you have the encryption key (which only Apple has) or you know the password to get into it. Even law enforcement is helpless to get into a well-secured locked iPhone.

Later that February, this same debate became a political issue in the presidential primary. The new President-elect Donald Trump, then just contending for the Republican nomination, made a big splash when he came out against Apple and said he would boycott Apple devices if they didn't give the 'info' to the FBI.

I use both iPhone & Samsung. If Apple doesn't give info to authorities on the terrorists I'll only be using Samsung until they give info.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2016

Just like other parts of the campaign, he made a lot of headlines and received a lot of positive press for this stance, despite how popular of a brand Apple is.

What is worrying about this, though, is that encryption is actually a really important technology that is incredibly helpful for the tech community overall. Encryption is the only way we can keep classified information out of foreign hands as a nation. It's the only way we can have secure digital communications, ensuring the same privacy we have when we talk in person with one another.

The fact that our new President-elect was willing to roll over on privacy so easily just a matter of months ago as part of a publicity stunt is very concerning and we need to remain vigilant to show our public officials, especially our soon-to-be commander-in-chief, that privacy is not something to be violated at the first sign of inconvenience for the government.

Donald Trump and Net Neutrality

When it comes to digital issues and policy, tech enthusiasts' worst fears have come true. The people of the United States have elected Donald Trump.

Mr. Trump, our newly minted President-elect, is a very controversial figure in the tech community. He often shows a complete disregard for regulatory principles in this sector. Instead of defending net neutrality and its implications, Trump seems more worried about entirely different priorities like the security of the conservative media and pleasing lobbyists.

Nowhere is this more clear than in his party's overall position on net neutrality. According to Ars Technica:

"Republicans in Congress have already proposed a variety of bills that limit the FCC’s regulatory authority, eliminate net neutrality rules, or replace the existing ones with rules that are less strict."

Donald Trump / CC by Gage Skidmore

So what is this net neutrality that Republicans seem to hate so much? It's the basis of the entire internet as we know it.

The internet, as provided to homes, workplaces and government buildings by internet service providers, moves freely through all pipes and cables the same. This means that Wikipedia loads just as quickly as Facebook, and the Drudge Report loads just as quickly as Vox. As fast as those servers can get the data to you, nothing slows it down or helps it speed up. All traffic is treated the same.

Many companies, specifically internet service providers, want this to change to open up a completely new avenue of control and, thus, revenue. This would mean Netflix would have to pay Time Warner Cable huge sums of money for it to load to Time Warner Cable customers as fast as it does now.

This is a giant problem, mostly due to how much the consumer loses in this scenario. In a world without net neutrality, most of the services that we love today could not have come into being. Facebook never would've come about if it had to pay huge sums of money to load well. Google started as a curiosity by Stanford students; do you think they could've gotten the capital needed to compete right off the bat? No.

Without an open playing field, we lose out on awesome products and services that benefit our life. It's as simple as that, and no amount of moneymaking by big corporations should make the consumer feel better about that. It's our job to let Donald Trump know that he shouldn't weaken the FCC and he should defend what is right in regards to what the majority of people want for the future of the internet.