Make yourself useful - oppose government overreach [USA politics]
If you are sitting on your quarantined ass looking for things to do, here is something you could consider supporting. If you oppose government infringement on your privacy, or don't like it when stupid old people in Congress who don't understand technology make laws that are harmful to the internet, you should be alarmed by the EARN IT act (S.3398) I'm convinced that BASE jumpers have been arrested on at least one occasion, because they didn't use end-to-end encryption to talk about their plans. If you use the Signal app (and you should), consider how you'd feel if Signal pulled out of your country because the Justice Department threatened them (even hypothetically) with criminal penalties for letting you use an app like that. WhatsApp is probably way more popular but it still uses the same technology, and if this law passes, you can bet Facebook is going to cave to the government like a little bitch, and put in back doors which only help the government and hackers spy on your privacy.
This is not the same as Australia's notorious "Assistance and Access" law. That law requires companies to provide technical assistance, to the extent that it is technically possible. The U.S. law is stronger and broader, threatening companies by basically taking whatever online crimes their users might commit, and being able to charge the company for being involved. Right now, this is why your internet provider (i.e. Comcast) doesn't go to jail if you do something illegal online. It is one reason why Google can't get charged with conspiracy to murder, if you hire a hitman and GMail happens to be your email.
Under this bill, the Attorney General could selectively decide which companies get to keep the current legal protection and which lose it. This becomes an overpowering incentive for any company to give the government a backdoor key to your private communications, and try to block your own attempts to use secure encryption. Or do anything else they have to do, to avoid this draconian consequence.
What would this really accomplish? If you are a smart online criminal, you will use any number of other tools to continue to communicate securely. If you are just an average user, your constitutionally-protected right to privacy, and your tools of convenience, are going to go away unless you know how to code them yourself.
Oh, and guess who else uses Signal? A lot of those fucks in Congress who want to ban unbreakable encryption.
ACT HERE: https://act.eff.org/...aham-blumenthal-bill
https://www.wired.com/...ttack-on-encryption/
https://signal.org/blog/earn-it/
https://www.congress.gov/...enate-bill/3398/text
https://www.forbes.com/...ks-of-cyber-attacks/