Recently, there have been plenty of Techdirt stories about the authorities in the US and elsewhere making increasingly strident attacks on encryption, with claims that things are „going dark,“ and that Silicon Valley is foolishly aiding terrorism thanks to its „obsession“ with privacy etc. etc. Against that background, it‘s easy to get swept up by a narrative that pits us, the freedom fighters, against them, the dark forces of repression, and to celebrate the occasional wins that come our way.

But suppose all this is just for show — not so much security theater, but as privacy theater to divert our attention from what is really happening.