An End to Encryption? Surveillance and Proportionality in the Crypto-Wars

Abstract

End-to-end encryption has been a reality for at least 30 years. However, it is only with recent developments that it has become widespread on mobile phones operating over the internet. This has provided tools for terrorists to plan activities that lead directly to the deaths of innocent civilians. At the same time, it has also been used by dissidents challenging totalitarian regimes and holding liberal democracies to account. In this chapter I argue that while terrorist use of such encryption may render that encryption unjustifiable within a liberal democracy, within an international context the protection that it provides to those seeking to establish law-abiding democracies is too great to be ignored.