When arguing that they be given some new extraordinary power, governments always say, “You can trust us not to abuse this power.” It always turns out to be a lie. Here, from Britain—a democratic country by any honest person’s definition—is an example. No terrorism. No kidnapped child. No pedophiles. No drug kingpins. Just a corrupt politician.
UPDATE: It occurred to me after I published this post that it has relevance to the caterwauling reaction of law enforcement to Apple’s iOS 8 encryption. On the one hand, the events in Britain show that law enforcement can not, in fact, be trusted not to abuse any capabilities they are given to access our digital lives.
On the other hand, it shows that law enforcement is being a bit disingenuous with all the doomsday talk about not being able to save kidnap victims or stop pedophiles in light of iOS 8 encryption. As the police in Britain demonstrated, it’s perfectly possible to get this information using traditional investigative techniques.