Anyone who’s been paying attention has seen this coming for some time.

Now, I’ve never been opposed to reasonable police powers. If the cops can convince a judge that a warrant is justified, they should certainly be able to obtain the wiretaps they need to perform their duty. That’s not disturbing in the least. But coupled with stories of “designated free-speech areas” and people being arrested and/or harrassed for such things as t-shirts advocating peace, the notion that backdoors should be built into every piece of communications equipment gives me pause. In particular when the regulation requiring the backdoor includes provisions for activation without a warrant. I opposed this crap during the previous administration and opppose it now.

So my big question about the proposed regulation is: will my activities now be criminal? See, my needs aren’t served by the communications equipment on the mass market. I’m presently building my own communications equipment to service my requirements. My build includes:

Now, it’s a real safe bet that neither the crypto accelerator nor the firewall software will ever include the backdoor the feds mandate. Frankly, if they did, I’d write my own firewall and do my crypto in software I’ve personally audited for holes before I’d consider using them. It’s absolutely impossible to design a backdoor such that authorized police agencies can access it and no one else can. Any assertions to the contrary are over-optimistic, disingenuous or both.

Do they honestly plan to make the use or distribution of this correctly functioning equipment illegal? That sounds unthinkable to me, but apparently I’m an exception in this regard. I’m patriotic. I have no intention of doing anything harmful or illegal. But this really rubs me the wrong way. Am I the only one?