A report funded by the Hewlett Foundation on the effect of encryption on the ability of the intelligence community to access information has found that fears about “going dark” are overblown. The New York Times reports that the study - which counted key figures from the intelligence community, academia, and the private sector among its members - determined that the rising Internet of Things has produced a wide array of unencrypted data sources that the government can use to track suspects. Essentially, as more objects are built with sensors for gathering data, and are linked together with network connections, broad new avenues for data collection are being opened to the government. The report also mentioned that this creates a new set of potential civil liberty concerns, but the primary focus was on the refutation of fears about terrorists being able to completely escape detection by using encryption.
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