End-to-end encryption is racial justice
As millions stay home in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, digital platforms that facilitate connection have become a lifeline. People are flocking to platforms like Zoom or Google Meet that connect them to work, wellness services, and family and friends. But these platforms don’t always have users’ best interests in mind. Right now, tech companies are leaving us open to being watched by tech companies themselves and the government. But in a world where everyone could be being watched, we are not watched equally. When tech platforms are compromised, we are not all affected equally.
Without proper privacy features enabled on digital platforms, everyone is put in harm’s way, but the burden disproportionately falls on Black, brown, and poor communities. Throughout history we have been the disproportionate victims of surveillance and over-policing. Today, as technology becomes more intertwined with daily life, that shameful history continues online, making unwarranted surveillance a danger to our privacy. For example, the FBI has called for tech companies to build back doors into their platforms so that government investigators can read, listen to, or watch otherwise inaccessible communications.
This is why end-to-end encryption is a racial justice issue.
End-to-end encryption ensures that only the sender and the recipient can view, listen to, or watch messages sent between you both. No app developers, third-party companies, or hackers can see into your private conversations. End-to-end encryption is the best available option to protect communications between sender and recipient.
But “end-to-end encryption” has become a buzzword that companies throw onto their security white page or advertisements to lure in privacy-conscious users. Tech companies all too often operate without thinking about how a platform could be compromised. Zoom’s recent privacy scandals are the perfect example. In the past weeks, Zoom has had thousands of leaked emails that were sold on the dark web and a lawsuit for data transfer to Facebook without user consent; it has been asked by multiple state attorneys general about what security measures it intends to put into place as the platform’s popularity skyrockets. Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, recently said, “I did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home.” But lack of foresight is no excuse.
People of color use social platforms proportionately more than white people and value it to amplify issues that we organize around, like #BlackLivesMatter. But the platforms that we use are often not built for, operated by, or meant for us. This is evident in the lack of racial diversity among Big Tech companies that still struggle to diversify their workplaces.
We cannot keep letting our safety be compromised and determined by tech companies. We must be serious about digital privacy and demand that tech companies implement default end-to-end encryption.
Demanding end-to-end encryption is one way we can start to take control of how we interact with digital platforms. We need end-to-end encryption to ensure that communities of color can use digital platforms for everything from healthcare to school to organizing with minimal threat of cyberattacks or surveillance.
