One Minute Brief of the Day
Create posters to demonstrate the importance of encryption in keeping us all safe both online and off.
Tweet your entries to @OneMinuteBriefs and @OpenRightsGroup with the hashtag #EncryptionKeepsUsSafe
Remember your Twitter handle in the corner of your entries. Deadline 6pm GMT.
Prizes:
● 1st Place: £500 cash
● 2nd place: £100 cash
● 3rd place: £100 cash
What is encryption?
Encryption is the method by which information is converted into secret code that hides the information's true meaning. Encryption has been a longstanding way for sensitive information to be protected. Historically, it was used by militaries and governments. In modern times, encryption is used to protect data stored on computers and storage devices, as well as data in transit over networks.
Context:
The UK Home Office has commissioned a campaign that undermines public support for encryption. The campaign is likely to feature people ‘blindfolded’ so they can’t see the contents of messages, with a message that encryption is allowing bad people to do bad things.
We want a creative rebuttal to this campaign. Encryption is used by us all to keep our personal messages private. Encryption protects women using disappearing messages to escape an abusive partner. Encryption protects whistleblowers confiding in journalists about political corruption or corporate illegality. It helps keep political dissidents and human rights activists safe. Encryption protects all people to freely express themselves to their loved ones in confidence. Encryption stops passwords or PINs shared on texts from being abused by criminals.
If the UK Home Office gets its way, the UK will be alone in the world for breaking encryption alongside the Chinese surveillance state under President Xi.
Encryption is used everywhere right now to keep information safe and secure. You can find this security on messaging apps such as Signal, Telegram and Whatsapp, in our banking apps and in wellbeing and healthcare applications. Despite its ubiquity and importance, strong, end-to-end encryption is under attack by the UK Home Office.
End to end encryption is vital to our society and economy. Encryption means that:
● You can exchange private messages and images securely with your family.
● Your doctor and the NHS can transfer your private medical information online.
● You can speak to a therapist or social worker about sensitive issues at home.
● Anything you want to keep private can not be seen by unintended viewers.
Opponents of encryption have framed the technology as a roadblock for law enforcement agencies driving a media narrative that focuses on it being used to mask criminal activity online. Governments around the world have called for law enforcement agencies to be granted ‘exceptional access’ which would allow them to access encrypted messages through a ‘backdoor’.
But backdoor access will create vulnerabilities in these platforms that could be exploited by online criminals, or hostile governments, endangering the security of billions of people online and in real life.
Put simply, people have a natural desire for safety. Opponents of encryption have used fear mongering to set the political weather against its use. We need to flip people’s perceptions and celebrate how encryption keeps us all safe everyday.
#EncryptionKeepsUsSafe
https://www.openrightsgroup.org/
Brief supported by 89up.
