It’s kind of an unorthodox take, but I’m guessing the idea is that if corporations perceived that they didn’t have secure ways to protect stuff, they would refrain from gathering as much stuff, because they would be afraid of the liability. And btw the perception / reality distinction is important here in supporting this theory.
I disagree. What makes corporations afraid of liability are laws enforcing liability. We never got those, and I don’t see why weaker encryption would’ve created them. We could, for example, have meaningful penalties when a company leaks passwords in plain text.
