Bad Boy Ink (Get Ink'd #5) - Ali Lyda Page 0,31

and not how unexpectedly fun lunch had been.

Outside of the door to the lecture hall, I was grabbed by some of the other students that I’d become friends with over the past few weeks. Instead of waiting for me, Aiden strode past without a second glance to go find a seat in the lecture hall. His shoulders were stiff as he moved away, and I wanted to follow him, but I also didn't want to be rude to my new friends.

By the time I broke free and entered the room, the lecture was about to begin, and I had to grab a seat at the back. Aiden, of course, had found a seat at the front. As far away from me as was possible in the lecture hall.

At least one of the bonuses of sitting far away was being able to watch Aiden during class. The more the professor spoke, the more engaged Aiden became. It was a slow transformation, a metamorphosis from uptight and sullen boy to interested and intelligent man. His shoulders dropped, and he leaned in his chair with a confidence that helped him look relaxed and projected authority.

More than that, he actually spoke up in class. When the professor asked questions, Aiden's hand was often the first in the air. His responses were always sharp and clever. He was easily the most knowledgeable student in the classroom. While I loved seeing this different side of him, it was also intimidating.

I’d created a narrative where nice guys finish first. Of the two of us, I viewed myself as the nice guy. But Aiden was causing me to reframe the narrative. He didn’t always see me as nice, and I was seeing this side of him that was...god, it was so pleasant, even when he mostly, objectively, wasn’t.

The professor was going into an analysis of digital forensics. When he asked a question about the legality of forcing a suspect to provide an encryption key, Aiden was already answering.

“I think the laws should make it necessary for any encryption keys to be turned over with evidence,” he said. “Not only is keeping an encryption key hidden the act of the guilty party, but it also counts as hindering an investigation. Furthermore, it should be considered as a component of the evidence and therefore property of the investigation.”

My hand shot in the air, but I didn't wait for the professor to call on me. “If we assume that, though, then we’re assuming a suspect is guilty until proven innocent. That’s the antithesis of our legal system.”

Aiden twisted in his chair to glare at me. “You don't think that trying to hide the ability to decrypt your information counts as a mark in the guilty department?”

“I think that people are entitled to privacy. And I think that if people are clever enough to encrypt their information, they shouldn't be punished for it. It isn't up to the law to remove that level of privacy based on a hunch. Like anything else, a warrant should be required to get an encryption key.”

“But what's on the hard drive might be what’s needed to get enough evidence to get a warrant,” Aiden countered. “And the internet and our information are notoriously open already. There's no such thing as private data.”

My fingers closed into fists, like they could keep my energy leashed tight inside. Aiden was the perfect person to argue with. He was smart and quick on his feet. The rest of the class faded away as I honed in on him. “Well, now you're assuming that if you have the ability to hack into someone's information, then they don't deserve their own privacy. That's an entirely different and none-too-legal suggestion. That's saying that people deserve to be punished for putting any information in digital form. That makes everyone a target. Like, literally anyone with an email.”

The professor clapped, interrupting our back and forth. He was smiling. “This is an excellent conversation regarding the legality of digital forensics. What both of you are forgetting, though, is that we still haven’t established a firm legal precedent for using digitally retrieved evidence in a case. It continues to be argued that because data can be manipulated, then anything that is digitally retrieved is considered an opinion and not a fact. It's insufficient in many court cases. So not only would you have violated a person's rights to gather evidence by forcing the encryption key, but that evidence may not even be admissible in court.”

He moved from