[HN Gopher] UK petition to keep Apple data encrypted
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       UK petition to keep Apple data encrypted
        
       Author : latexr
       Score  : 44 points
       Date   : 2025-03-11 17:16 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (you.38degrees.org.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (you.38degrees.org.uk)
        
       | daveoc64 wrote:
       | Why is this on a site that wants you to sign up for marketing,
       | rather than the GOV.UK petitions site?
        
       | gambiting wrote:
       | Has there ever been any petition in the UK that has achieved any
       | effect other than "thanks we'll think about it"?
        
         | nadermx wrote:
         | Great example of "well think about it"
         | https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4J4uor3JE&pp=ygUhc2tpdCBraWx...
        
         | Crosseye_Jack wrote:
         | After 50k signatures asked for Jeremy Clarkson to be appointed
         | PM, Downing Street said Nah -
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNy1w4DV5Hw
        
         | Jigsy wrote:
         | Petitions don't work on the whole. afaik, they exist to the
         | give the public the illusion that their opinion matters.
         | 
         | A slightly cynical take, but accurate none-the-less.
        
         | sph wrote:
         | The UK petitions website exists solely to appease the naive
         | electorate, if it worked they'd have shut it down already.
         | 
         | It's the equivalent of those door buttons in elevators. "Give
         | them something to do when they're restless."
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _Has there ever been any petition in the UK_
         | 
         | Online petitions are useless for anything beyond harvesting a
         | list of potential donors.
         | 
         | The value in a petition or protest is in demonstrating
         | commitment. If you're willing to fill in a paper form and/or
         | show up somewhere inconvenient, you're might also be willing to
         | phone bank (and petition for) a primary opponent.
         | 
         | Online petitions do none of that. If an issue has lots of
         | online petitions and nothing else, it's almost a sign that its
         | base is electorally useless.
        
       | Jigsy wrote:
       | There's actually a solution to this problem which I stumbled on a
       | few days ago.
       | 
       | Obviously we cannot allow backdoors, and people should have their
       | stuff encrypted, and if the UK's authortarian government wants to
       | know what's being said they should do their job and crack the
       | encryption.
       | 
       | So realistically the UK could just make it illegal to use any
       | encryption algorithm other than DES for anything... in the UK
       | anyway.
        
         | sph wrote:
         | Good job, but the assignment here is not figuring out how the
         | UK can more easily destroy the privacy of their citizens.
        
         | harvey9 wrote:
         | If you use anything stronger than ROT13 you're probably a
         | wrong'un
        
       | Cryptoclidus wrote:
       | So, is this the UK gov testing the waters or is Apple the only
       | company that didn't quietly aquiesce when handed a secret order?
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | Instead of petition, people should wake up and vote better for
       | their representatives...
        
         | JumpCrisscross wrote:
         | > _Instead of petition, people should wake up and vote_
         | 
         | Agreed.
         | 
         | "Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, which was the
         | lowest at a general election since 2001. Turnout was 7.6
         | percentage points lower than in 2019" [1].
         | 
         | https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/general-election-2024-t...
        
         | pqtyw wrote:
         | That doesn't work for issues that are of secondary or tertiary
         | importance from the perspective of almost all voters.
         | 
         | Especially in horrible electoral systems like the ones in UK
         | you have to pick the least bad out of 2 options (every vote for
         | third party is wasted).
         | 
         | I also really doubt that conservatives would behave any
         | differently.
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-11 23:02 UTC)