But thanks for breaking privacy for the rest of us.
This morning I came across a story about the UK government demanding a backdoor into iCloud — not just for UK users, but globally. The plan was dropped, not because it was a bad idea, but because the US threatened higher import tariffs. Not ethics. Just economics.
This got me thinking…
This isn’t the first time these kinds of backdoors are proposed.
And let’s be honest: this title doesn’t just apply to the UK Cabinet. Governments all over the world — including The Netherlands — regularly float the idea of breaking encryption.
Whether it’s through client-side scanning, mandatory cloud backdoors, or direct access to your phone — they always claim it’s in the name of stopping human trafficking or child abuse.
Don’t get me wrong. We should do everything in our power to prevent these heinous crimes.
But breaking encryption is not the solution.
Backdoors don’t stop criminals. They just weaken security for everyone else.
Criminals
And why doesn’t this help?
Because criminals don’t use iCloud, Dropbox, or any other mainstream cloud storage.
You think they’re storing photos of their trafficking victims right next to vacation pics and baby albums?
Seriously?
Suppose encryption is banned and backdoors are mandatory. How do criminals adapt?
Easy.
- They’ll switch to end-to-end encrypted apps hosted offshore.
- They’ll use double-layered encryption inside containers — think VeraCrypt inside a TrueCrypt volume, shared only over private tunnels.
- They’ll run file servers over Tor, use burner phones, swap encrypted USB sticks at meetups.
- They’ll go old school and move back to air-gapped systems, dead drops, or steganography.
In short: they’ll be fine.
It’s the average citizen, journalist, activist, whistleblower or dissident who gets burned.
Or even easier?
Just use GPG-encrypted emails and send each other updates like it’s 1999.
Good luck decrypting those when the key size is 2048 bits or more.
Because — again — encryption is math. You can’t ban math.
This sounds hard to implement!
Maybe… if you’re not that tech-savvy, it sounds complicated.
But with the rise of ChatGPT, how hard can it really be?
“Hey ChatGPT, help me set up a private encrypted cloud server that’s invisible to the outside world and only accessible via a secure VPN.”
Boom. Step-by-step instructions. Done before lunch.
Other nice prompts:
- Hey ChatGPT, I want to send encrypted emails safely to my friends. How do we do that?
- ChatGPT, can you help me set up a private cloud server that only I can access?
- How can I securely store my personal files so no one — not even the government — can access them?
- I want to hide sensitive files in plain sight. What tools can I use for encryption or steganography?
- Can you explain how I can use GPG to encrypt emails between me and a friend?
- What’s the easiest way to set up a VPN and encrypted file share at home?
- How do I use VeraCrypt to create an encrypted container on my USB stick?
- Give me step-by-step instructions to build a private Nextcloud instance with HTTPS and encryption.
- How do I create a secure dead drop using encrypted cloud storage and expiring download links?
- Can you write me a bash script to encrypt and decrypt a folder using OpenSSL?
Still think encryption is only for tech wizards?
Veracrypt
How do I use VeraCrypt to create an encrypted container on my USB stick?
Yes. How hard is this actually?
ChatGPT’s answer:
Yes. 9 steps. Almost interactive. Written like a tutorial.
This is not elite hacker stuff. This is ChatGPT, Google + common sense.
And anyone — yes, anyone — can do it.
So will creating a backdoor into public cloud storage help in the battle against child pornography?!
Encryption
“You don’t stop crime by banning locks — you just make everyone else more vulnerable.”
— Common sense, apparently not shared by lawmakers
- Encryption is a right.
- Privacy is a right.
- Locking your door at night is a right.
- Keeping your PIN code private is a right.
For all of us!
Yes — even for criminals. And that’s the hard part.
Rights aren’t conditional. They’re universal, or they’re meaningless.
Backdoors
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
— Benjamin Franklin, 1755
Creating a backdoor into iCloud is like giving a copy of your house keys to a central authority — “Don’t worry, we’ll only use it when absolutely necessary.”
But how safe is that central authority… when the entire world knows it’s holding the master keys to everyone’s house?
When people know there’s a backdoor, they will try to find it — and once they do, they’ll do everything they can to hide the fact that they found it.
That is not paranoia, that is reality!
Just a small list:
- Citrix “Bleed 2” hack Critical Netscaler vulnerability actively abused. Dutch Public Prosecution Office (OM) went dark.
- Paragon / Graphite spyware Zero-click iPhone spyware. Used to target European journalists. Created by yet another Israeli firm.
- NSO Group: Pegasus spyware Infamous zero-day surveillance tool. Deployed against journalists, activists, even heads of state.
- QuaDream spyware (lesser known) Also Israeli. Also iPhone zero-click exploits. Also used on civilians. Just less famous than NSO.
Journalists. Activists. Heads of state.
Where are the criminals in this list?
Because let’s be honest — the ones using these backdoors?
It’s not always “the bad guys.”
It’s our own governments. And they don’t just use them to stop crime — they use them to monitor, to silence, and to control.
Do we really want to hand over our master key to them?
Yes, it’s true: EncroChat phones, used by actual criminals, were compromised. And yes, that led to the exposure of major drug trafficking networks. But let’s not pretend that backdoors come with built-in moral filters.
Minority Report
Remember Minority Report (2002)?
Tom Cruise’s character worked for PreCrime, a unit that arrested people before they committed a crime, based on predictive visions. Back then, it was science fiction. Today, with backdoors, surveillance, and client-side scanning, we’re inching dangerously close to that reality. It’s no longer just about what you did, but what you might do.
What’s next?
Scan our thoughts? Arrest people based on “suspicious behavior” flagged by an algorithm?
Minority Report wasn’t supposed to be a manual — but some governments treat it like one.
How long before mere suspicion is enough to strip away your rights?
For the Dutch readers:
Remember “de Toeslagenaffaire”? That too was based on an algorithm. An automated system flagged innocent families as fraudsters — and the government acted on it without question.
Thousands of lives destroyed. No precogs. Just code.
Still think giving the government a master key is a good idea?
Again:
Privacy is a right.
Encryption is a right.
Not a privilege. Not a loophole.
A right — for all of us.
A very concerned Brain out!