You should view this through the lens of practical politics.

We ought to show the administration, and those watching, that we have a ground game: That people care about this issue, and are motivated enough to speak out.

The following is verbatum my reply posted on the governments provided site :

In an attempt to provide insight, I feel talking specifically about technology is foolish, as clearly all those involved in the conversation for ‘fixing’ encryption to act against ‘terrorists’ are already so convinced of their argument talking about this in terms of internet technology is pointless.

Watching government hearings, it seems the government is fond of analogies, so please allow me a few.

What is being suggested by the government for the technology sector to do, is the equivalent of demanding every lock in the country be, or contain somewhere in its design, a simple pin and tumbler locking mechanism universally unlockable by a single Master Key.

This idea is implemented in many high schools which provide their own locks for students to use to secure their belongings in their lockers, and with an identical purpose. To keep out other students, while at the same time providing faculty a quick, easy method of searching student lockers for contraband and whatnot.

In practice, it allows clever and crafty students to pick the pin and tumbler ‘master segment’, by passing the infinitely more difficult combination lock mechanism entirely to access their fellow students belongings.

From here, I have PERSONALLY WITNESSED students use this capability to:
* Sneak contraband into the lockers of students they may hold a grudge against, so they may then ‘Anonymously’ inform the faculty of the students supposed misdeeds. Innocent students can be suspended, expelled, and possibly receive criminal records from well meaning deterrence policy by being framed.

* Steal from their fellow students. Everything from homework, reports,personal belongings, money, anything.

* Change the locks. To prevent students from accessing their own belongings, they may replace the lock with a far more durable, far less vulnerable and completely inaccessible lock, necessitating the school itself take means to remove it and allow the affected student access to their belongings again.

These are only a very small number of examples of what HAS happened in these situations. Now, let us apply them to encryption.

After bypassing the government ‘Master Key’, Backdoor, security vulnerability, good guy only all access pass or whatever else it is you wish to refer to the weakening of important personal security as, Terrorists, Cybercriminals and other horrible people will, with a little time and a few resources, be able to…

*Insert and disseminate without the authorisation or knowledge of the system owner illegal and felonious material before providing the always eager to protect law enforcement agencies with an ‘anonymous tip’ about child pornography, illicit copywritten material, proof of material support of ISIS and more, leading to felony convictions capable of not only incarcerating someone in excess of their current lifespan, but also bring about the destruction of their life and livelihood even should parole occur due to the previous false associations of guilt.

*Empty bank accounts, gain access to credit card information, copy personal data, access work related details and information and more. What is more, any transfer of the above to recognized terror groups such as ISIS can easily be construed as material support of a terror group,leading to felony convictions and serious jail time, simply for being robbed.

*Install new encryption tools. Simply because the government mandates use of weakened or compromised or ‘improved for government access’ encryption does not suddenly force existing tools and services to disappear. To prevent an individual realising what has been done with their systems before it is too late (convictions raised, etc), a proper, strong, inaccessible encryption system may be installed. This serves not only the purpose of locking out both the owner and law enforcement from the system, adding to the suspicion of guilt on the innocent party for ‘use of banned or illegal encryption services’ they themselves did not put on their system.

This does not even begin to address other constitutionally protected interests, such as the 5th amendment right to be secure against unlawful search and seizure.

In the above scenario, terrorists turn innocent citizens into dissidents simply by destroying their lives, an watching their own government turn the people against them.

An individual unjustly incarcerated due to the above scenarios is naturally going to lose faith in their own governments ability to discern good from evil. Worse, they themselves may feel that if living a good life got them where they are, there may be little point to TRYING to live a good life.

You yourselves provide material support to terrorists by acting out against your own people, and showing them that you are not a government to be trusted with the sanctity and security of this fine and great nation. You yourself create terrorists by enabling groups to more easily attack your citizens at home and at work. You yourself undermine your own security, and make your people less safe.

I implore you, I beg you, I PLEAD with you to understand the ramifications of what you are suggesting. This is not about allowing law enforcement access, it is about denying EVERYONE access unilaterally, and relying on actual investigation, not simply a ream of circumstantial and out of context evidence dredged from an ocean of data, to capture criminals.

As a law abiding citizen of this nation, I personally would rather CCTV cameras attached to every building in our nation, surveying every square inch of ‘public’ space for any sign of indecency…. than see encryption weakened and broken is so often suggested.

Worse, the long conversation about encryption not only weakens the methodology used to keep us safe, but time and time again insists on an ineffective and counter-productive solution in the face of working towards REAL solutions.

This conversation is the equivalent of attempting to dig through concrete with a plastic spoon. The people you reach out to for help repeatedly insist there are better ways to accomplish your goal, but all you ever ask for is a stronger plastic spoon.

If you truly care about your nation, your legacy as a government body, the trust and respect of your voting public, the security of your richest stakeholders and campaign contributors, and the operability of your nations impressive economic corporate powers…. you will stop demanding you know something everyone else does not, and LISTEN to the experts you bring in to advise and help you. The TECHNOLOGY experts. The ones expected to implement your plans.

I have worked in IT departments, and I recognize the governments behaviour in this field. When an IT department gets orders from upper management, they are devoid of understanding. They ask for a ‘simple’, vague, poorly worded theory of a contradictory instruction, like ‘Make the network run faster, but don’t expect a budget increase to cover it’ or ‘prepare the network infrastructure for the new offices, but only spend a quarter of what you tell us you need to do it’, or my absolute favourite ‘Don’t bother with redundancies, it’s a waste of money. Just fix stuff really fast when it breaks’.

You are smarter than this. You all are. I know you are.

Now act like it.