0:00:01.343,0:00:03.072
For more than 100 years,

0:00:03.096,0:00:07.122
the telephone companies have provided[br]wiretapping assistance to governments.

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For much of this time,[br]this assistance was manual.

0:00:10.708,0:00:14.826
Surveillance took place manually[br]and wires were connected by hand.

0:00:14.850,0:00:16.600
Calls were recorded to tape.

0:00:17.334,0:00:19.478
But as in so many other industries,

0:00:19.502,0:00:21.268
computing has changed everything.

0:00:21.725,0:00:24.748
The telephone companies[br]built surveillance features

0:00:24.772,0:00:26.817
into the very core of their networks.

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I want that to sink in for a second:

0:00:29.498,0:00:33.758
Our telephones and the networks[br]that carry our calls

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were wired for surveillance first.

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First and foremost.

0:00:38.763,0:00:42.589
So what that means is that[br]when you're talking to your spouse,

0:00:42.613,0:00:46.935
your children, a colleague[br]or your doctor on the telephone,

0:00:46.959,0:00:48.445
someone could be listening.

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Now, that someone might[br]be your own government;

0:00:51.490,0:00:55.653
it could also be another government,[br]a foreign intelligence service,

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or a hacker, or a criminal, or a stalker

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or any other party that breaks into[br]the surveillance system,

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that hacks into the surveillance system[br]of the telephone companies.

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But while the telephone companies[br]have built surveillance as a priority,

0:01:12.380,0:01:14.196
Silicon Valley companies have not.

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And increasingly,[br]over the last couple years,

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Silicon Valley companies have built[br]strong encryption technology

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into their communications products

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that makes surveillance[br]extremely difficult.

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For example, many of you[br]might have an iPhone,

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and if you use an iPhone[br]to send a text message

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to other people who have an iPhone,

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those text messages[br]cannot easily be wiretapped.

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And in fact, according to Apple,

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they're not able to even see[br]the text messages themselves.

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Likewise, if you use FaceTime[br]to make an audio call

0:01:44.552,0:01:47.163
or a video call with one of your[br]friends or loved ones,

0:01:47.187,0:01:49.316
that, too, cannot be easily wiretapped.

0:01:49.340,0:01:50.885
And it's not just Apple.

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WhatsApp, which is now owned by Facebook

0:01:53.691,0:01:56.549
and used by hundreds of millions[br]of people around the world,

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also has built strong[br]encryption technology into its product,

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which means that people[br]in the Global South can easily communicate

0:02:03.635,0:02:06.445
without their governments,[br]often authoritarian,

0:02:06.469,0:02:08.203
wiretapping their text messages.

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So, after 100 years of being able[br]to listen to any telephone call --

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anytime, anywhere --

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you might imagine that government[br]officials are not very happy.

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And in fact, that's what's happening.

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Government officials are extremely mad.

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And they're not mad because[br]these encryption tools are now available.

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What upsets them the most

0:02:30.095,0:02:34.262
is that the tech companies have built[br]encryption features into their products

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and turned them on by default.

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It's the default piece that matters.

0:02:38.541,0:02:42.316
In short, the tech companies[br]have democratized encryption.

0:02:43.165,0:02:46.962
And so, government officials[br]like British Prime Minister David Cameron,

0:02:46.986,0:02:51.833
they believe that all communications --[br]emails, texts, voice calls --

0:02:51.857,0:02:54.445
all of these should be[br]available to governments,

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and encryption is making that difficult.

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Now, look -- I'm extremely sympathetic[br]to their point of view.

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We live in a dangerous time[br]in a dangerous world,

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and there really are bad people out there.

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There are terrorists and other[br]serious national security threats

0:03:08.605,0:03:12.582
that I suspect we all want[br]the FBI and the NSA to monitor.

0:03:13.345,0:03:16.048
But those surveillance[br]features come at a cost.

0:03:17.357,0:03:18.512
The reason for that is

0:03:18.536,0:03:21.022
that there is no such thing[br]as a terrorist laptop,

0:03:21.046,0:03:22.553
or a drug dealer's cell phone.

0:03:22.902,0:03:25.865
We all use the same[br]communications devices.

0:03:26.577,0:03:30.252
What that means is that[br]if the drug dealers' telephone calls

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or the terrorists' telephone calls[br]can be intercepted,

0:03:32.845,0:03:34.841
then so can the rest of ours, too.

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And I think we really need to ask:

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Should a billion people[br]around the world be using devices

0:03:39.667,0:03:41.086
that are wiretap friendly?

0:03:43.407,0:03:47.155
So the scenario of hacking of surveillance[br]systems that I've described --

0:03:47.179,0:03:49.290
this is not imaginary.

0:03:49.622,0:03:50.774
In 2009,

0:03:50.798,0:03:54.845
the surveillance systems that Google[br]and Microsoft built into their networks --

0:03:54.869,0:03:58.360
the systems that they use to respond[br]to lawful surveillance requests

0:03:58.384,0:03:59.550
from the police --

0:03:59.574,0:04:02.242
those systems were compromised[br]by the Chinese government,

0:04:02.266,0:04:04.663
because the Chinese government[br]wanted to figure out

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which of their own agents[br]the US government was monitoring.

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By the same token,

0:04:09.564,0:04:12.983
in 2004, the surveillance system[br]built into the network

0:04:13.007,0:04:16.181
of Vodafone Greece --[br]Greece's largest telephone company --

0:04:16.205,0:04:18.784
was compromised by an unknown entity,

0:04:18.808,0:04:20.848
and that feature,[br]the surveillance feature,

0:04:20.872,0:04:23.150
was used to wiretap[br]the Greek Prime Minister

0:04:23.174,0:04:24.893
and members of the Greek cabinet.

0:04:25.313,0:04:28.377
The foreign government or hackers[br]who did that were never caught.

0:04:29.955,0:04:33.652
And really, this gets to the very problem[br]with these surveillance features,

0:04:33.676,0:04:34.936
or backdoors.

0:04:34.960,0:04:38.162
When you build a backdoor[br]into a communications network

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or piece of technology,

0:04:39.511,0:04:42.559
you have no way of controlling[br]who's going to go through it.

0:04:43.243,0:04:44.688
You have no way of controlling

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whether it'll be used by your side[br]or the other side,

0:04:47.506,0:04:49.417
by good guys, or by bad guys.

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And so for that reason,[br]I think that it's better

0:04:52.523,0:04:55.175
to build networks[br]to be as secure as possible.

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Yes, this means that in the future,

0:04:58.704,0:05:01.270
encryption is going to make[br]wiretapping more difficult.

0:05:01.280,0:05:03.949
It means that the police[br]are going to have a tougher time

0:05:03.949,0:05:05.285
catching bad guys.

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But the alternative would mean[br]to live in a world

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where anyone's calls or anyone's[br]text messages could be surveilled

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by criminals, by stalkers[br]and by foreign intelligence agencies.

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And I don't want to live[br]in that kind of world.

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And so right now,[br]you probably have the tools

0:05:20.841,0:05:23.159
to thwart many kinds[br]of government surveillance

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already on your phones[br]and already in your pockets,

0:05:26.190,0:05:29.969
you just might not realize how strong[br]and how secure those tools are,

0:05:29.993,0:05:33.522
or how weak the other ways[br]you've used to communicate really are.

0:05:34.737,0:05:36.864
And so, my message to you is this:

0:05:38.110,0:05:39.763
We need to use these tools.

0:05:40.239,0:05:42.543
We need to secure our telephone calls.

0:05:42.567,0:05:44.416
We need to secure our text messages.

0:05:44.950,0:05:46.602
I want you to use these tools.

0:05:46.626,0:05:49.982
I want you to tell your loved ones,[br]I want you to tell your colleagues:

0:05:50.006,0:05:52.430
Use these encrypted communications tools.

0:05:52.454,0:05:55.130
Don't just use them[br]because they're cheap and easy,

0:05:55.154,0:05:57.158
but use them because they're secure.

0:05:57.182,0:05:58.437
Thank you.

0:05:58.461,0:06:02.047
(Applause)