The first Irish opinion poll on public sentiment about encryption has found that the Irish public overwhelmingly believes (93%) they have the right to private conversations online. 90% say nobody should be able to access their private messages without a court order.
Two-thirds (66%) also say the government should not have the power to access encrypted messages, citing a lack of trust in the current or a future government to have that power. This distrust spans across political affiliations with majorities of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin, Independent and other party voters expressing reservations.
The research, which was carried out by Public First and commissioned by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT),1 follows an announcement by the Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan earlier this year that he plans to table legislation that would give gardaí interception powers for „all forms of communications whether encrypted or not“.