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Comment by gpcz | Hacker News Reader

This program makes me nervous because its primary use case is to obstruct justice, which the author tries to get away from with a thinly-veiled excuse that it could also be used to defend against criminals. I understand that technology is ethically neutral (for example, this program could be used to hinder reverse-engineering of a sealed computing appliance), but the fact that they're basically advertising this thing to obstruct police investigations puts me off.

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> This program makes me nervous because its primary use case is to obstruct justice, which the author tries to get away from with a thinly-veiled excuse that it could also be used to defend against criminals

I agree that there's a problem with the author's messaging, but I think the problem is with this first as a tool for "when your house gets raided by the police..."

There are all kinds of reasons to encrypt your data. Some of them involve obstructing justice, some involve protecting oneself from "justice," but there are many others. If you have a good reason to encrypt, then you probably have good reasons to protect your system using a program like this.

Leaving aside the State, and more mundane robberies, some people have good reasons to be concerned about industrial espionage[1]. Tools like this seem like a good way to counter that.

[1] http://www.infoworld.com/article/2615610/data-security/when-...

> This program makes me nervous because its primary use case is to obstruct justice

Given the number of raids that happen based on false CI information, typoed street addresses, or government overreach... it's not clear that the program is meant to be used primarily for that.

The police aren't our friends. They don't protect us individually or collectively. Often we need to be protected from them. Any tool that can help with that is a good thing.

1000% agree. I was out having fun one night with some friends in my younger years. We left a bar together and split up. As I and one of the guys I was with entered a parking structured, my other friends drove up to us in a convertible car. They were laughing at me because my fly was down so I pulled it up in a funny gesture as I approached them.

At that point, two cops pulled in behind me and thought I was passing drugs. They looked around on the ground and patted me down and when they found nothing, they trump up some charges and said I indecently exposed myself. When the case went to court, the cops were caught lying. They tried to tell the judge I flashed some girls in a convertible but video showed they lied through their teeth.

So I have my own personal story but don't listen to me, hear what this professor and an ex-cop have to say about talking to the police.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Offtopic nitpick: technology is not ethically neutral but simply amoral. The lawnmower that cuts of your foot doesn't have issues with your foot. It's just rotating blades.

Yeah, when I made this program two years ago I never intended it to be taken this seriously. I added a big disclaimer to the readme.

If I were using it, its primary use case would be to prevent my personal or business data from falling into the hands of criminals.

Read into that any double meaning you like.

> advertising this thing to obstruct police investigations

You mean, like a lawyer?

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