The framework of mutual legal assistance treaties by which nations request law enforcement data from each other is unprepared for the cloud computing age and the U.S. ought to lead updating efforts, says Vivek Krishnamurthy, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, in a paper for the university’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

Source: March is encryption bill month – POLITICO

The complex fragmentation of cloud computing not only makes the use of mutual legal assistance treaties hazy, the technology and the legal structure are “fundamentally irreconcilable,” according to a paper published earlier this month by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Source: Paper calls for alternative legal regime for the cloud – FierceGovernmentIT

“You understand words in a particular way,” said Dalia Topelson Ritvo, assistant director of the Cyber Law clinic at Harvard Law School. “It’s challenging with symbols and images to unravel that.”

Source: A 12-year-old girl is facing criminal charges for using emoji. She’s not alone.

Jonathan Zittrain says if Apple says yes to the U.S. government, it will make it harder to say no in countries with very different values. Zittrain is a cofounder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard.

Source: Apple To Fight Court Order To Break Into San Bernardino Shooter’s iPhone | KCCU

Zittrain is co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, which examines law, ethics, and the intersection of the Internet and civil society.

Source: Apple bites back | Harvard Gazette

As Bruce Schneier, a security technologist affiliated with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, noted in an email this morning, “I cannot build a technology that only operates in the presence of people with a certain morality.”

Source: Encryption — government doesn’t get it – The Boston Globe

John Palfrey, founding president of the Digital Public Library of America and a director of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, recently told the Deseret News that he has “been struck by the number of times people tell [him] that they think libraries are less important than they were before, now that we have the Internet and Google.

Source: “The Future of Libraries” On Thursday’s Access Utah | UPR Utah Public Radio

Clapper’s assessment also essentially echoed one of the conclusions in last week’s “Going Dark” report from Harvard University’s Berkman Center’s Berklett Cybersecurity Project.

Source: Feds Say Internet of Things Could Help Them Spy on Us | NewsFactor Network

Intelligence officials including FBI Director James Comey have conjured claims that encryption threatens national security, and that private companies should allow government agencies backdoor access to encrypted communications and data. A study released last week by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, however, reveals that the FBI has been crying wolf.

Source: White House Executive Order on Privacy Falls Short

Before they continue their campaign to strongarm tech firms into abandoning secure systems that customers clearly desire, or installing a so-called “back door” available to government agents, they should read a new report from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University on the encryption debate.

Source: Tech firms like Apple and Google are right about encryption – The Denver Post