Feds put heat on Web firms for master encryption keys
I'm ambivalent about NSA's need to request potentially large amounts of data from Google about broadly targeted foreign intelligence targets. I see the long term sinister possibilities while generally believing that the data isn't being misused today, and what immediate problems I see have more to do with ineptitude and laziness than with the belief that Internet surveillance is fundamentally evil.But coercing Google into handing over TLS keys is unequivocally bad; indefensible, I think. It's one thing to legally compel Google to grant access to data, but another thing entirely to rewire Google itself:* It provides NSA with a technical capability they do not currently have, enabling them to shoot first and answer questions for a court later, and eliminates a due process element that other providers (notably Yahoo) have been able to avail themselves of.* If provides the USG with capabilities beyond simple surveillance, for instance by allowing them to spoof Google pages. There can't be any legitimate reason to provide them that blanket authority.I appreciate the effort and expense it must take for companies like Google to resist these requests.