&quot;So politicians and intelligence services calling for encryption want, institutionally, to keep people safe. How can tech companies do that without breaking or backdooring encryption? That&#x27;s the real problem to solve, and the first person to figure out how to do that will be way ahead.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s the problem: they can&#x27;t. The tech just moves information around in ways that are visible and can be invisible. Even the subtle timing of the signal can be used to communicate. What you&#x27;re asking is that tech companies do two things:<p>(a) Ensure every tech with communication mechanisms can only work in a way known perfectly ahead of time and controlled to prevent all leaks.<p>(b) Ensure that every message, regardless of its words or properties, isn&#x27;t aiding evil somewhere.<p>(c) Ensure that it&#x27;s impossible for a user to put obstacles between their identity and a communication tech so we know exactly who the evil-doer was.<p>That&#x27;s simply impossible. It can&#x27;t be done <i>at all</i>. Talking about lay terms, North Korea has the most totally controlled Internet and country locked down by both technology and terror. Possession of a cell phone can get you locked up and leaving can get them after your family. Yet, there&#x27;s regularly communication from small numbers of courageous people coming out of that country. If that ideal surveillance setup won&#x27;t work, how on Earth could any tech accomplish the same thing with the diversity of sites, language, interactions, and tech that exist in Western countries like America?<p>It just can&#x27;t because it can see bits and read the minds&#x2F;hearts of those that create them. That&#x27;s what the government wants. It&#x27;s not possible. Otherwise, they&#x27;d probably have eliminated most crime already looking at people&#x27;s homework in school or text messages divining their character. ;)<p>Also, the problem&#x27;s been known so long there&#x27;s even a meme for it:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Evil_bit" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Evil_bit</a>