Debate shit

Senators, I request you negate that internet companies should be required to hand over “encryption keys” to get government. My value for this is privacy.

Contention I: Security.
To compromise the security of encryption at all for the sake of safety isn’t choosing between security and privacy. It is choosing between bad security and good security. A backdoor into anything by definition is a vulnerability. If good actors can get in, bad ones can as well. To get a bit more technical about how something like this would work we first need to know what encryption is and how it function at least on a basic level. The point of encryption is to secure data like passwords, credit card numbers, or anything sensitive at all. The basis of encryption is math with very big numbers that when used correctly cannot be cracked in anyway, so much so that if all computers on Earth tried to crack it the heat death of the universe would occur before the encryption fails. There are two ways of encrypting data. One is taking plain text and putting it through an algorithm that turns that plain text data into seemingly random numbers that can only be undone if you have a special key. This is Private key encryption. Then we have public key encryption in which there are two keys, one that can encrypt data, but no decrypt--a public key; and one that can decrypt--a private key. For the requirement of handing over encryption keys that would refer to public key encryption in which the private key would have to be turned over to the government. The best way to do this would be for the company to keep a vault of sorts containing all its users’ private keys. This vault would be only available for high level people in the company of course so when the government requests a key it then must be retrieved from the vault and securely transmitted. On a small scale this seems fine but for a big company, say google, it could have thousands of requests each day. It would be impossible to prevent any flaw that could compromise possibly millions of users at once. This vault would be the main target of many many people, from domestic terrorists, to foreign entities wanting to destabilize the US. Instead of creating a safer world by being able to stop internet attacks, forcing companies to have the private encryption keys of all their users would make everything less safe.
Contention II: Privacy.
The fourth amendment gives all citizens “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” This requirement for internet companies says nothing about Warrants with probable cause. This directly goes against the fourth amendment. In America we have the right to privacy. Encryption is math, and if people want to use math it is impossible to stop everyone. Bad actors will still be able to keep their nefarious plans secret. To quote Phil Zimmernmann: "If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy."