Preface: Now this might sound like a good discussion for the EoEO, i.e. whether or not the state should have the power to spy on the computers of its citizens, however that is beside the point of my post. Let's just chat about what could come and how it could end for the different groups of users from the technical perspective.
Federal Trojans are a hot topic where I come from. The big idea is to give the state the power to look up the data on the PCs of its citizens for the sake of combating crime, e.g. child-pornography saved on their HDDs, and terrorism. As of this moment, or so they say, it's only in discussion, however there seems to be a good chance of them pushing it through. Logically, a good number of people, who neither with to rape 6-year-olds nor blow up trains, don't like the thought. Now the big question is, what exactly will happen if such a trojan does come into circulation?
The problem being is that if the state pushes such a program through, most people will be affected. The major anti-virus companies will be forced to leave the entry from their databases or get their selling licences taken away. Knowing that most computer users are dummies, this sort of action will, in my opinion, grant the guys at the capital access to the good 95% of the computers, which in return would allow them to outlaw the possession of the free-ware packages that can in fact detect the named trojan (we all know that some Russian or Chinese programmer will sooner or later write this sort of thing).
At this point the very people who want their privacy will get on the very list of people who film under-age sex and blow their guts out once every so often. Unlike fighting the illegal P2P downloaders (45% of teenage population due to the latest study), this would be a rather easy task due to the relatively small number of people in question (caused by the abstractness of the matter).
Thoughts?
