Obama at SXSW: ‘Absolutist view’ on digital privacy cannot prevail
It needs to be pointed out more often that law enforcement still has <i>all</i> of the physical access methods that they&#x27;ve had for the past 200 years. If the government wants to break into your home or office, they can and will do so. No &quot;technological advance&quot; from Silicon Valley has made this type of investigation more difficult. This means that <i>all</i> of the investigative methods that were available 200 years ago are available now.<p>The government is demanding <i>new</i> powers: the power to search our communications. Perhaps the ability to conduct such searches will make their jobs easier, but keeping them from having this power does not make their jobs <i>more</i> difficult than the 200 year baseline. We are only asking them to do the same legwork that they&#x27;ve always done: look for suspicious behavior, track the purchase of dangerous materials, react to disasters and attacks when they happen, etc.