this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
802 points (99.5% liked)
Technology
79233 readers
2084 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If they were that interested, why would they push encryption at all?
That’s a great question, and it is because it enables a chain of cryptographic controls that enable verification, tamper resistance, and secrecy while selling Bitlocker as computer security. It is technically secure, except that MS has your recovery keys and can just give them to whoever they want, like the FBI!
This way, they can mathematically verify:
Who you are and the exact unique machine you use (verification from a unique machine ID associated with your encryption keys and Windows account data)
Know that the data has not been altered in transit (tamper resistant hashing of your data)
No one else knows except them (secret encryption keys stored in hardware that only Microsoft controls, not you, Microsoft)
This architecture also keeps their data on your machine secure. If someone maintains an encrypted archive on your hard drive that only they control the keys to, say like a movie or a video game, who owns that data really? If it’s decrypted only for authorized use, you’re really only renting that content from the owner. This is called Digital Rights Management, and it’s much easier when this security chain is in place.
Technically they could do this remotely if they really wanted to and your machine were powered. Imagine what you could do with this power for every Windows machine on the planet.
There is also the case when a computer is lost or stolen. With bitlocker on, the content of the computer cannot be accesses without the key, which the new owner will not have.
I always thought that was the main point of using bitlocker.
Verification of identity.
Marketing. Just that.