Questions tagged [encryption]
The encryption tag has no usage guidance.
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Is the inaccessibility of illegal data no defence to its keeping?
It is often a crime to possess certain kinds of data. Specific kinds and penalties vary depending on jurisdiction.
However, to "possess something, a person must have ... access to it and control ...
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Do the various anti-end to end encryption laws have provisions concerning third party clients?
There has been multiple attempts to criminalise end to end encryption (E2E). Currently in the news is the EU Chat Control 2.0 (though it seems it has now been withdrawn), the UK passed the Online ...
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How can Telegram defend themselves from law enforcement action? [closed]
It has been stated for over a decade on Telegram's Privacy Policy that
All data is stored heavily encrypted and the encryption keys in each case are stored in several other data centers in different ...
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Is the company still a GDPR data controller if all data is end-to-end encrypted? [closed]
When developing an application which requires some personal data to function, a good thing to do, from a security and integrity perspective, is to minimise the amount of user data one gets access to. ...
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Does the protection of Legal Privilege apply to encrypted documents?
My understanding, based upon Common Law in England & Wales, is once something is sent to a solicitor, it is subject to Legal Privilege.
If the solicitor is unable to open an emailed document, say ...
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Do I have to keep encryption keys secret if I know they decrypt copyrighted content that was distributed without authorization?
Say someone else posts an encrypted file online, and challenges people to decrypt it.
Say I download the file headers, and I manage to determine the password. (Maybe it was a made-up word that only me ...
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Storing encrypted, copyrighted material on behalf of users
Suppose a web service offers users to store their media data, some of which may be copyrighted. The service would keep metadata separate from the content itself, and that content would be ...
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Is it legal to upload encrypted copyrighted content to the Internet?
Say I own a digital copy of a copyrighted movie. Is it legal for me to encrypt it with say, AES, and share it to the Internet so anyone could download the encrypted copy?
It actually breaks down to ...
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Can a company or lawyer force someone to turn over an encryption key?
In the Office episode The Deposition, Jan sues Dunder Mifflin for wrongful termination. During the deposition she pulls out Michael's journal to help her case.
Suppose Michael encrypted his entries (...
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Sentencing guidelines for Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA)
I have read into section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) which can demand suspects surrender passwords for encrypted devices, and section 53 makes it an offence not to do ...
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Does the Australian Telecommunications and other legislation amendment Act 2018 put restrictions on individuals or Open Source Software?
The Telecommunications and other legislation amendment (assistance and access) act 2018 allows the issuing of three types of notice relating to access to encrypted communication, either requesting ...
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Does the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 give the police the right to access end-to-end encrypted messages?
End to end encryption is a security measure in which the sender of a message encrypts the message in a way that only the intended recipient is able to decrypt it. This was first popularised by the ...
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GDPR and Personal Data Encryption
Suppose we have some user's personal data, that we have to encrypt and store in a database.
I've read this would technically not be a breach of personal data, since the attacker would only have ...
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Does GDPR apply if my web app stores personal data on the user's phone only?
My web app stores personal data about the user, but on the user's phone only (HTML5 Local Storage). The data is never touched by any server or database. I can't see the data. My server can't see the ...
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What is the legality of creating a messenger application with end-to-end encryption in Autralia?
The encrypted messages will be stored in the server, but no one will be able to decode them except the users.
What is the legality of creating a messenger application with end-to-end encryption for ...
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Is it legal to make encryption breaking technology public?
Much of our critical infrastructure relies on encryption as the bedrock of its security. Encryption, however, is a practically a "very hard" mathematical problem that will take eternity to ...
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If a company actively and knowingly displays user passwords to their staff, is it breaking GDPR laws?
I used to work for a company, where they have a team of moderators, who actively monitor which accounts are scammers etc. To monitor this they can find links between user accounts via a users password,...
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Is client-side encrypted data really personal data
Scenario: My service that is storing customer files is hosted on my own personal physical server, “on-prem”. It is then using one of the popular cloud storage services (Azure blob storage, AWS S3) to ...
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Bringing a BitLocker Laptop into China
I'm struggling to understand the current Chinese law on bringing encrypted devices into China.
Would it be illegal for someone to bring their work laptop encrypted with BitLocker into China to work ...
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Can I avoid telling the police my password by regenerating my key each time?
Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 Part III Section 49 the police can, with a certain procedure, require one to provide a key with threat of custodial sentence up to 2.5 years if ...
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Encryption over handheld transceiver
I'm aware that encryption of amateur radio communications is prohibited (or rather, any technique to make the message unreadable is). Does this apply to handheld transceivers ("Walkie-Talkies&...
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Law enforcement requesting passwords from companies?
Could UK law enforcement enforce s.49 of RIPA 2000 on a company outside the UK, say Snapchat, Facebook, or Google, in order to retrieve a user's hashed password from their database to log into that ...
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Can an RSA private key be copyrighted? Would the publishing of such a key violate the DMCA 1021 provisions?
Let's say I have found the private key used to digitally sign executables that can be flashed into certain hardware.
If I made a tool that took any compatible binary as an input, and used that private ...
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Can publishing restrictions be "circumvented" by encrypting the contents?
Let's say I've legally purchased a copy of Best Book Ever.pdf, and the item is copyrighted and I'm not allowed to publish it. Can I encrypt it and store it online on an open server without telling ...
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Was Mendeley really compelled by GDPR to encrypt my database?
Mendeley 1.19 encrypted my data on my HDD with a key that only Mendeley has.
On Twitter Mendeley claimed that:
To comply with GDPR & keep your data safe, Mendeley has encrypted your
databases. ...
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Mendeley is encrypting my data on my hard disk with a key only available to them: can I ask for unencrypted data under GDPR?
I use Mendeley Desktop to manage my bibliography. Now I want to switch to Zotero.
Zotero used to be able to import the Mandeley's database. However, Mendeley 1.19 encrypted my data on my HDD with a ...
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What to answer to a GDPR-related user request about his data if it is fully encryped and only the user has the private key for decryption
We wrote an App where private data can be sent from one phone to another phone one by temporarily storing the encrypted data file on our database server. The data file will sit there for less than a ...
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Am I obligated to decrypt lots of data for GDPR requests?
I am providing a B2B service where customer data of businesses are stored in an SQL table.
As I never need to query for this personal data, the data at rest there is asymmetrically encrypted with the ...
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Dealing With A Private Institution Policy To Inspect All Encryption-capable Devices Leaving The Country
I am a student recently admitted to the University of Cincinnati, and I noticed something very peculiar and frightening in section 3.11 of their technology code of conduct.
In light of clause 3.1, "...
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Am I required to hand out my private encryption key by german law?
I have posted a question over at academia.stackexchange.com (see [1]) which involves a legal question that may better fit here.
Context: I am a PhD student of a german university. Due to illness a ...
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Asking for the unencrypted version of a file in an open-source project?
Let's say that an open-source project, such as a GNU GPL one, uses git-crypt and has added private, encrypted files, such as ssh private keys to the committed git repository.
Wouldn't John Doe be in ...
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Is encryption required by law? What are the legalities behind accessing user's data in firebase?
I am building a mobile messaging application. I am using Firebase to store and collect user's data including their name, email, as well as their contacts and messages. At the moment, since I am the ...
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Laws surrounding publicly (ish) displaying decoded messages received over radio
POCSAG512, POCSAG1200 and POCSAG2400 is the protocol used by pagers to transmit information to one another. The problem I'm seeing here is that it is not encrypted, only encoded, as any broadcast has ...
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Encryption key disclosure laws?
The UK's Investigatory Powers Act 2000 can force suspects to decrypt encrypted data or face two years in prison.
What happens if an individual's private encryption key is managed by someone else ...
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Does GDPR apply to personal information entered in a password-field?
If someone enters personal data in a field which purpose is not to handle personal data, does GDPR apply?
For example if someone enters their email, phone number or name in a password-field? If so, ...
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Can a one-time-pad provide legal immunity - (make data inadmissible) -?
IMPORTANT NOTE:
This question is quite niche, I am not sure if this stack is the most relevant place, please inform me if there is a better place for it.
To explain the question:
I am asking if, a ...
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Can tech companies wishing to prevent secret backdoors discriminate in hiring against Australians?
Australia has passed a law which apparently requires tech workers to develop backdoors which can defeat a company's encryption and security features, without informing their employer, if ordered to do ...
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Can this scheme be used to avoid forced disclosure?
Summary: Possible way to avoid the requirements of giving away the decryption key. Will this work?
Many countries have laws forcing citizens to decrypt their private data if they are being suspected ...
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What does the law say about the cloning of RFID tags?
In the UK, what does the law say regarding the legality of cloning RFID tags that you own, but did not generate?
I'm particularly interested in cases like the Mifare Classic tags, where you may need ...
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Is it illegal in the US to release software containing cryptography if there is no master key or backdoor or data retention?
If I made a proprietary piece of software that provided AES-256 encryption for IM, voice chat, and file transfer would this itself be illegal? The way it'd be set up is people would run the service ...
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Open source encryption library pose export compliance
I am developing an app which will encrypt users files , photos etc. I use the open source library RNCryptor to do the operation . Does this make my app require export compliance ? . Does the export ...
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Is brute forcing the password of an encrypted file legal?
A person I know sent me an encrypted .zip archive and I do not know what data is inside. Is it legal to break the password and open the archive, for example, by using a brute force algorithm? The ...
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Is it legal to send encrypted messages via a post card?
In German law, is it legal to send an encrypted message via a post card?
E.g. encrypt a message text on a computer with RSA and print the Base64 encoding on the post card and send it.
Or is it a ...
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Is throw-away-the-key-encryption allowed under GDPR?
Article 15 of the GDPR says:
The data subject shall have the right to obtain [...] personal data [if it is being "processed"]
Article 4 says that "processing" includes storage.
Therefore, all ...
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What bodies of laws protect against the disclosure of private encryption keys?
I am interested in US law as well as European law, and curious about international/other countries law, if applicable.
It is generally accepted that if you somehow find a private key (let's assume by ...
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Copyright and Encrypted Backups
A person's computer stores a variety of copyrighted files which they have a license to use and store (such as video games, operating system files, and purchased or freely available media). However, ...
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Can you be legally compelled to disclose your password in a criminal investigation? [duplicate]
Let's say you use encryption on your computer, and you've been arrested. The police believe there is evidence on your computer, and have seized the computer via a warrant. The police cannot extract ...
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Does an Internet Service Provider rewriting TCP traffic to prevent SSL/TLS constitute wiretap?
Context:
I rent two dedicated servers from a hosting provider, one on a yearly basisis, the other monthly. The Terms of Service and AUP state clearly that they are not to access the server or data ...
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US export compliance document for ios
We are planning to update our app in App Store with some cryptographic implementations included in the next release.
Reading about the App Store procedures for apps with any cryptography, it requires ...
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Encryption export compliance document in iOS app store
I am using encrypted core data (a wrapper of sqlcipher for core data) in my application in order to encrypt the database, and later before submitting the app to the appstore, I happened to notice that ...
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